Wolfpack barely hold on to beat Virginia

NC State barely held on yesterday in beating the Virginia Cavaliers in the RBC Center, 72-67. Once again this season the Wolfpack let a 17 point second half lead slip away to only 1 point with 10 seconds left in the game. Lucky then the ball was put into the hands of Courtney Fells who hit 4 straight free throws to secure a victory. That wasn’t the first time Virginia came back on the Wolfpack either, in the first half Virginia was down 18 at one point and managed to bring it to 3 points at half time. One more interesting fact about the game, Brandon Costner didn’t score a single basket in 22 minutes he played and may actually have been injured.

What is going wrong?

• Turnovers, the problem still has not gone away, the Wolfpack committed 10 just in the first half.
• How is it that the Wolfpack cannot finish out a game. It is scary to see the Wolfpack consistently give up 18,19,20 point leads every half of every day. Really? I think this may go back to coaching and possibly defensive problems.
• Free throw shooting, no reason we should be under 70% from the line. Tracy Smith went 50%, Horner missed two in a row down the stretch for the second time this season and Williams went 0-1 from the line.

What is going right?

• CJ Williams is scoring big points for us putting up 16 total points and four 3-pointers. A good sign for the future of Wolfpack basketball.
• Tracy Smith is playing great and game-by-game becoming more and more efficient from the field.
• Although the Wolfpack shot 45% from the 3-point line, they still hit 8.

What’s next?
The NC State Wolfpack will take on the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest on Thursday night at 8pm in Winston Salem. Lets hope that Duke gives them a run for there money again and wears them out before Thursday. The Wolfpack upset the then No. 7 Deacons about two weeks ago in a stunning 82-76 performance. Hopefully the Wolfpack will be able to control Jeff Teague again, the Deacons leading scorer and play maker.

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