| Â | NCSU | (14-10) | 36 | 44 | 80 |
| #3 | UNC | (24-2) | 39 | 50 | 89 |
Carolina was too much for NC State to handle last night in Chapel Hill last night, and they handed the Wolfpack an 89-80 loss. The Wolfpack played well in the first half of the game, holding the #3 Heels to only a three-point 39-36 lead at the halfway mark, but in the second stanza, Carolina’s multiple threats were able to out-gun State.
“This time,” Wolfpack guard Javi Gonzalez said, “at least it was pretty close the whole game.” Unfortunately for the Wolfpack team and its fans, it wasn’t close enough by the final buzzer. Still, Gonzalez had a point — Carolina blew out NC State in the RBC Center on January 31st by a 93-76 count that wasn’t even that close. Last night Carolina had to work harder for the win, and the Wolfpack has clearly shown some improvement since the first meeting — but the contest last lnight also showed how far it NC State to go last night until it can compete with and defeat an elite team like UNC. Progress has been made, sure, but there is much more progress left to be made.
Wolfpack head coach Sidnet Lowe said in the post-game interview that his team “came out with good energy and kept ourselves in the ballgame. I thought our guys gave a pretty good effort, but we turned it over a couple of times crucially and gave them an opportunity to get out and run on us.” In the end, that made the difference for the upstart Wolfpack.
Carolina improved to 12-1 against the Wolfpack since Roy Williams took over at his alma mater before the 2003-04 season.
Box Score (espn.com)Â | Audio Interviews (850 The Buzz)
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Go with your comments here for now… until Jeff and co. decide to put something more substantial up (or modify this).
I had luck with the game thread last Wednesday… why not try it again?
