Wolfpack Finally Gets Quality W
A North Carolina State team that couldn't close out games for a month, and couldn't shoot straight when it counted most finally got it right against Virginia Wednesday night.
Kenny Inge scored a career-high 29 points as the Wolfpack ruined the Cavaliers' highest ranking in 18 years with a 90-80 victory.
N.C. State shot 72 percent in the second half and was 17-for-25 from the foul line in the final 20 minutes, scoring its most points in an Atlantic Coast Conference game in Herb Sendek's five seasons.
"I think we showed that we're a pretty good ball club," said Damien Wilkins, who scored 21 points in the Wolfpack's biggest win of the season. "For us to come out and get a win over a team that was on it's high horse, that had beaten some quality teams, to close out the game like that says a lot about our team and our character."
N.C. State (11-10, 3-6 ACC) had lost to Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest and Syracuse by a combined 27 points before beating the Cavaliers to break a 10-game losing skid against ranked teams.
"All year long we've gotten rotten tomatoes thrown at us, but we're the ones out there playing," Wilkins said. "We know everyone isn't going to like us. When things go bad, people tend to jump ship and go sour. But we've just kept our composure all year long. We just block it all out."
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The Cavaliers (16-5, 5-5) committed 22 turnovers and couldn't handle the Wolfpack's inside game. Center Travis Watson, who leads the ACC with 10 double-doubles, battled foul trouble all night and finished with a season-low five points before fouling out with 7:58 left.
Watson suffered a hip pointer Saturday night against Wake Forest and wasn't at full speed after not practicing for two days.
"He played on courage and guts. He was hurt," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "Travis was 40 percent of himself."
Donald Hand led the Cavaliers with 29 points, but most came late when Virginia was trailing by double digits.
Virginia, with its highest ranking since March 1983, had a first half to forget. The Cavaliers shot 33 percent, turned the ball over 15 times and committed 15 fouls to fall behind 36-24 at halftime.
"We really didn't start playing as hard and as desperate as we needed to until we got down 12 or 14 points and that's too late against a very good team," Gillen said. "In the ACC, at home or on the road, you've got to come out with a fire, a passion, and we didn't.
"That's something from within," Gillen added. "That's not about talent, it's just about aggressiveness and mental toughness and physical toughness."
The Cavaliers closed within eight with 16 minutes left after a 15-minute delay at the start of the second half to correct a crooked basket at Virginia's end.
But N.C. State then broke it open as Inge had a dunk, two free throws, a layup and follow shot in a span of 3:10 as the Wolfpack took a 58-40 lead with 11:42 remaining.
Virginia closed within 10 eight times during the final 5:20, but could get no closer as Wilkins scored nine in the final 3:15.
"Our effort hasn't been any different than this," Sendek said of a series of tough losses. "Our guys felt determined, not desperate."
The Wolfpack led by as many as 13 in the first half, going on a 20-5 run as the Cavaliers played their worst half of basketball since trailing Duke 53-20 on Jan. 13.
N.C. State's defense drew five charging fouls as Virginia, which had averaged 90 points in its last five games, couldn't muster anything on the offensive end.
The Wolfpack went six minutes without a basket near the end of the period, but still managed to take a double-digit lead into the break for the second straight game against a highly ranked team. N.C. State led No. 9 Syracuse by 11 at halftime on Saturday before losing 54-53.
"We had two great practices going into this game," Sendek said. "Our guys came right back to work and worked as hard as young men can work and got a well-deserved win."
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