The bad news...well, the Pack didn't pull out an upset victory against the rival Tarheels. The good news, however, is that they played their heart out and for the first half at least, matching UNC shot for shot. State came out firing and showed they were not going to be intimidated by higher ranked Heels. It was an offensive shootout the whole way as State touched the 80's for the 5th straight game.
Although the Pack fell 89-80, they showed a lot of heart and passion as they battled and battled until the final buzzer. Once forgotten point guard, Javi Gonzalez, was a man possessed in the first half as he dripped 4 threes on his way to 16 points. Tracy Smith was the only big that seemed unintimidated by UNC and he threw his weight around and poured in 15 of his own. Costner couldn't get going and double teams helped hold him to only 12 points.
The intensity, passion, and heart was there for the Wolfpack, but this was a definite case of simply not having the same amount of talent as your opponent. The Tarheels could attack from any position at any time...and that they did as they shot an utterly dominant 55% from the field and a mind boggling near 70% in the 2nd half.
The Pack can't be discouraged as the ACC season winds down. They have some big matchups against Virginia, Wake, and Maryland. If State can take 4 of the next 5, which is no simple task, they'll be in a nice bubble position come tourny time.
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2 Responses to "Heels Hold Off Pack 89-80"congrats to sid for finally finding a good rotation,i must say ive been pleasantly surprised by the way the pack has progressed,didnt see it coming this year.javi is finally coming into his own(id already wrote him off).sid is finally giving tracy the playing time he should've gotten earlier in the year,everyone seems to be playing harder and they and us as fans are starting to believe maybe something magical could happen this year. go pack,and big ups to javi
Thanks Ashley,
Yes we too are happy to see Sid finally settling on a rotation. Although I understand that he wanted to be a little deeper, there is a fine line between being deep and being too deep as to where your player can never get in the rhythem of the game. If you've played competative basketball you understand that flow of the game, while hard to really define, is very important when it comes to performance.
We also really want to give a lot of credit to Javi who has seen the bottom and now is working his way back to the top. The kid is a fighter, he's very emotional but he is just a pure scrapper and that is something you can't teach.
I think people are really starting to believe around here and a few more wins would really get people back on the Wolfpack train.
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