A Valiant Effort: #3 UVA defeats NC State Wolfpack 61-51

By A. Zach Williams | Jan 8, 2015

North Carolina State (11-5, 2-1) fought the good fight. They were aggressive and appeared confident facing #3 ranked Virginia Cavaliers on their home court in Charlottesville, VA. In the end, it was not enough as the NC State Wolfpack was defeated 61-51 by a veteran Cavalier team.

Virginia, one of the premier defensive teams in the nation, improved to 14-0 and 2-0 in conference play with the win. At 14-0, this equaled a mark that the Wahoos had not accomplished since the Ralph Sampson era back in the 1980’s.

NC State started the game strong with senior Ralston Turner reigning 3-pointers and aggressive team play helping the Pack jump out to an 8 point lead early in the first half. Then the drought struck. For 6:13 NC State scored nary a point. However, thanks to 7 first half 3 pointers (58%) the Wolfpack only trailed by 1 point at the half 32-31.

Jan 7, 2015; Charlottesville, VA, USA; Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

In a game that featured 8 lead changes, Mark Gottfried’s team continued to impress since he challenged his young team to improve after their 12/30/14 lackluster performance in a loss to Cincinnati.

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NC State took its final lead of the game 42-41 at the 8:58 mark when Trevor Lacey launched a rainbow three from Manteo as the shot clock expired.

Then the second drought struck. During the next 5:52 NC State would not score a point dooming the Pack as their play became sloppy with quick shots, turnovers and easy UVA points allowing them to take the largest lead of the game at 10 points, 55-45 with 1:11 to play.

Coach Gottfried said about the ending, ”We had some breakdowns that just really hurt us. We had some offensive fouls called, we had couple where we didn’t block out and they had a couple putbacks, two or three in a row. … There’s a lot of good things that we did. We just didn’t do enough and didn’t finish the game.”

Virginia had balanced scoring from Justin Anderson (16), Malcolm Brogdon (14), Anthony Gill (12) and 11 points from Mike Tobey in what turned out to be anything but an easy ACC home opener.

Quick Stats

Trevor Lacey-9 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists

Ralston Turner-14 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks

Anthony “Cat” Barber-6 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists

Kyle Washington -13 points, 10 rebounds

Caleb Martin -5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block

Cody Martin- 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists

UP NEXT for the Wolfpack:

#2 Duke at PNC Arena– January 11, 2015 @1:30pm TV: CBS

#18 North Carolina at PNC Arena– January 14, 2015 @ 7:00pm TV: ESPN2

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