How about that Wolfpack!!! The Pack took down 7 seed Duke in the first round of the ACC tournament on Thursday night 85-80 in overtime. It was another very good shooting night for the Pack, 61% for the game, and outstanding performances by senior Engin Atsur and freshman Brandon Costner. Engin did not have a point at half time but exploded in the second half and overtime for 21 point and several BIG plays. Costner started out hot ant had 16 at the break. He kept up the good play and finished the game with a career high 30 points and 7 rebounds. Ben McCauley did some very nice work down low and ended up with 15 points and 10 rebounds. He also had several nice passes inside to give us lay ups. I can remember one pass to Engin in the second had that was a thing of beauty. Grant was a bit quite but ended up with 9 points and 6 rebounds. Fells gave the Pack a spark early with a lay up and a dunk and ended the game with 8 points and 3 rebounds. Our only bench points came for walk-on Justin Clark who scored two points in three minutes of action in the first half.

The Blue Devils came out and shot very well in the first half. Paulus and Schyer both go hot from behind the arch and Duke build a nine point lead. However the Pack cut the lead to 5, 34-29, before half time kept it rolling in the second half. NC State used a hot shooting start to the second half to pull even at 41. After playing pretty even for the middle part of the half State got a little distance with 3 minutes remaining. With the Wolfpack up 4, Duke got a big three point play to pull to with in one at 66-65. After Duke took the lead 68-67 Engin Atsur hit a BIG three with about a minute left to give the Wolfpack a 2 point lead. Duke then tied the game at 70 and the Wolfpack got several good looks with less than 30 seconds in the game but could not knock on down. Overtime.

Brandon Costner started the overtime scoring with a three point play about 40 second into the five minute period and NC State would never trail again. The next several possessions saw both teams getting two point baskets. There was also the worst no call that I have seen this year, maybe in several years. McRoberts just charged down the land and Grant was clearly waiting on him and no call was made. Why, I don’t know. However, Grant responded with a baseline jumper that put State up by three. After a defensive stop and a few free throws the game was over and the Wolfpack had won.

So, with the win the Wolfpack moves to 16-14 overall and into the quarter finals of the ACC tournament. The Pack will take on Virginia Friday night at 7. Another important note is that in his first year as head coach, Sidney Lowe is 4-2 against the big 4 with wins against both unc-ch and Duke and a sweep of Wake Forest.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 10:38 pm and is filed under General, Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.