Wolfpack Silence Doubters, Crush Xavier 74-59

There was a lot of talk that NC State didn’t belong in the NCAA tournament. That talk has been silenced as the Wolfpack made a statement on Tuesday night against the Musketeers 74-59.

TJ Warren scored 25 points and Tyler Lewis controlled the tempo, finishing with 7 points, 8 assists and only 1 turnover as the Wolfpack rolled.

Total Team Effort
When Warren picked up his 2nd foul early in the game while turning his ankle, the outlook seemed bleak. Warren was certainly pressing at that start of the game, taking out-0f-the-flow shots and overplaying on defense. Maybe that brief sit down was a blessing in disguise for NC State. Suddenly other guys started stepping up. Ralston Turner became more active and Dez Lee started to look to score.  Warren righted himself after that sit-down, finished off the first half strong and had a huge second half .

Warren Still the King
Reading that last segment you might think that Warren struggled all night. That wasn’t the case. Once Warren shook the jitters and got going midway through the second half, there was simply no stopping him. He finished with 25 points, 5 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals. He was everywhere, and although Xavier did their best to bump him and play physical with him, he still found ways to score. His 25 points gave him 843 on the year, passing David Thompson for most in any single season for a Wolfpack player.

Bigs Were Hungrier
The NC State big men simply outplayed the Xavier front line. They were stronger, they were more physical and they simply just wanted it more. For a team that was supposed to be strong around the rim and fearless gong to the hoop, Xavier looked soft. The Wolfpack bigs took turns putting it on the Musketeers. First it was Washington, who started off the game red hot. Then it was Anya who came in, played great defense on Stainbrook, threw down a dunk and then swatted a bunch of shots. He was followed by Freeman who just played like a man in this game. He only had 2 points, but his defense and his rebounding (6 boards) were huge. Overall, Xavier was not your typical Big East team. When they took it up it was almost as if they were expecting State to just let them score. That certainly wasn’t the case as State finished with 9 blocks. (4 from Vandy and 3 from Anya). Here is one of Freeman’s that confirms everything I just said:

Huge Outing for Tyler Lewis
State fans should be so proud of this kid. He’s been through a lot this season and has simply kept grinding. A big part of the win over Xavier was thanks to Tyler Lewis. He finished with 7 points, 8 assists and only 1 turnover. He helped pace his team and made sure they were getting good shots. He was great in transition and even went into attack mode when he had to. Tyler played 32 minutes in this one because Barber was sick.

Ralston Turner’s Big Game
When Turner gets hot NC State is likely going to be in the game and Xavier seemingly didn’t have the scouting report on him. Ralston got open looks all night, going 6-11 from the field and 3-7 from 3pt range to finish with 17 points. But it wasn’t only on offense where Turner showed up, he was also State’s defensive player of the game. He was able to hold Xavier leading scorer, Semaj Christon, to only 14 points, which was a key to the Wolfpack’s success.

Real Officiating??

I said about halfway through this game. “I haven’t seen a true missed call on either side yet.” It’s amazing the difference folks. There’s not phantom foul calls, no inconsistant whistles when one team goes on a run. It’s as if the refs were just there to referee a basketball game…which is a far cry from what ACC officials are out there trying to do. Then I stumbled across this from a Dayton news article:

“Noteworthy: The officiating crew in the Xavier-North Carolina State contest was loaded with big-game experience. Gene Steratore is an NFL referee who was an alternate at the Super Bowl last month, Joseph DeRosa has worked eight NBA Finals and Doug Sirmons officiated at last year’s Final Four.”

It was amazing that when they even went back to the slow-mo instant replays they got almost every call correct, and the ones they missed were simply 50/50 calls. It’s so much more enjoyable to watch college basketball when the refs are actually qualified and aren’t out there trying to be the main attraction. Take note ACC!

Survive and Advance
The last team in made quite the statement against Xavier, beating them by 15. Now it’s on to Orlando where the Pack will play St. Louis on Sunday. The players left immediately after their interviews and boarded a plane. They touched down at about 3am. They’ll sleep in, get up to practice and then really rest until Thursday night’s faceoff.

We’ll have a full preview of St. Louis coming up soon, stay tuned….

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