Cat Barber put the team on his back, saving the Wolfpack from an embarrassing home loss to High Point 76-73.

The junior PG not only poured in 26 points and dropped 6 assists, but he bailed them out with a step back 3 pointed that beat the buzzer and sent them to victory.

It wasn’t a very pretty win for the Wolfpack, who once again played poor perimeter defense on an undersized and undermanned team. However, this was a must win for State after the early loss to William and Mary, and they were able to eke it out.

The game ball most certainly goes to Barber who was good in every aspect in this one. He shot the ball well, paced the offense well and made the right plays at the right times all night long. Mav Rowan had a big second half to help State keep up with the hot hands of High Point. The freshman wing has been huge for this team and he just keeps getting better and better. The impressive thing with Rowan has been his play late in games. Tonight he was huge within the last 2 minutes, knocking down a big time 3 and two free throws when State was on the verge of collapse.

State also got another quality outing from Abu. After some very questionable performances, Abu has been back to his old self, dominating the boards and being the team’s go-to post scorer. He finished with 13 points and 9 boards, 5 of which were offensive.

There were times in this one where it looked like NC State was going to run away with this one, but sharp shooting from the High Point guards and some feisty play down low from John Brown kept them in it. They actually had the ball with less than 25 seconds to play and the game tied at 73. They called a timeout, but the inbounds was stolen by Cody Martin…and that is where the fun began….

Martin was fouled going in for the winning layup, but turned his ankle as he was fouled. He wasn’t able to walk on it, so High Point was able to choose a shooter for the Wolfpack. They, of course, chose Anya (who is shooting an abysmal 34%). He missed both, but Rowan swooped in to grab the tipped rebound. After a timeout, State was doing their best to get it back to Mav. He was heavily guarded, so Cat was on his own. He went off a screen, collided with it, regained balance, and stepped back for a fade away 3 that hit nothing net. Game…NC State.

Now for a little critique. This was most certainly a huge W for this team, but there are still some major areas of work that still need to be handled if this team wants to compete. As we’ve said over and over, this team needs to get better at trusting and running their offense. Gottfried’s offense works, but this team needs to buy in. They need to sell their fakes, cut harder, set up their screens and make sure they use them correctly. Those fundamentals really haven’t been seen for a few years now and it’s really hampered the early growth of Gottfried’s teams. Any State fan who has watched NC State oer the past few years have seen spurts where it clicks and buckets seem to come at will. Right now however, too often State is banking on hitting long 2’s and contested 3s to win basketball games. Tonight they were hitting for the most part, but that won’t be the case every night. Barber has definitely bailed this team out with his ability to create and that will likely be a consistent trend as we move forward. But if they want to really shock the world this year they are going to need to be a lot more efficient and a lot more disciplined when it comes to running their offense.

While the offense could use some work, the defense is what is really holding this team back. Maybe it’s because it’s early season and the team isn’t as focused as they will be for ACC games, but that honestly should not be an excuse. This team has a defense problem. Now, before you go off and say I’m being a bit rough on this team, hear me out. This team should be absolutely shut-down on defense. They have the size, the length and the athleticism to absolutely stifle teams. So when we see a team like High Point shoot 43% and 50% from beyond the arc, it’s hard to not be disappointed. Recovery and communication on ball screens need major improvement. Closing out on shooters and staying on grounded on shot fakes need’s serious work. A ball screen and a pump fake should not be able to throw this defense into complete chaos, but all too often it happens to them. If they shoot over your contest, then fine, but the entire defensive system collapses when a guy comes off his feet on a pump fake, or is too slow to recover from a ball screen. They were able to out athlete High Point in this one and escape with a win, but with quality opponents coming down the pipeline, State needs to get their focus and discipline on the defensive end in check pretty fast.

Overall, a win is a win. They can use this as a lesson, see it as a character building win and get ready for Mizzou this Saturday in Columbia.