#3 UNC Outscores Wolfpack, 89-80

08-09 Basketball General247
  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) | 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?

About Dr. BadgerPack

NCSU Class of 99 and PhD University of Wisconsin, 2006... Which should adequately explain the screen name I chose at 2am one Saturday...

08-09 Basketball General

247 Responses to #3 UNC Outscores Wolfpack, 89-80

  1. SaccoV 02/18/2009 at 9:38 PM #

    Packster, Tracy is good on the offensive end. Defensively, he might as well be Archie Miller.

  2. packnwilm 02/18/2009 at 9:38 PM #

    Impressed with T. Smith 2nite. Much imroved even though we are going to lose by what we did a month ago.

  3. highstick 02/18/2009 at 9:39 PM #

    “It isn’t the reason that we’re down 19, but damn, this fucking officiating is just horrible.”

    But there’s a segment on this site that will tell you that nothing is wrong with the officiating!

    Granted, it’s not the reason, but I get really tired of watching Hansborough doing the “Cha-Cha Slide” on the way to the basket. “Two steps to the back, now hop!

  4. wufpup76 02/18/2009 at 9:39 PM #

    Probably should’ve been an intentional on Dennis there, but don’t let ’em have it easy … ever

  5. MrPlywood 02/18/2009 at 9:39 PM #

    I feel like this has as much to do with State getting away from the gameplan way more than anything UNX has done.

  6. LKNpackfan 02/18/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    highstick – there were AT LEAST 6-10 badly missed fouls on our end, that absolutely would have been called if blue had the ball. My wife was even getting pissed

    edit: and when I say 6-10, that’s the badly missed ones, not the subjective stuff that we knew was going to go blue’s way

  7. JeremyH 02/18/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    we finished the half great, down by 3. I missed the first 2 minutes of the second half and we’re down by 9. That was the difference, basically played them even after that.. well until we gave up around the 6 minute mark.

  8. buttPACKer 02/18/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    i like smith, too. . . he’ll be a really great player next year or two.

  9. BassPacker 02/18/2009 at 9:42 PM #

    Good pt Plywood, it was like Sid came up with a new gameplan in the locker at half.

  10. Charlotte Packer 02/18/2009 at 9:44 PM #

    what is the crowd saying?

  11. inhoc... 02/18/2009 at 9:45 PM #

    9 points aint bad………..we still carry our momentum.

  12. MrPlywood 02/18/2009 at 9:45 PM #

    In the ever repeating pattern, the guys seem to forget what they did in the first half. Lose composure, take ill-advised shots, etc. Fells especially. And as I type – he hits a three. pffft

  13. McPete 02/18/2009 at 9:45 PM #

    at least the final score is respectable, 80-89. better than what duke could do in the annual game of the century.

  14. redfred2 02/18/2009 at 9:46 PM #

    They have shot lights out!!!!!!!!!

    I starting typing a post about at lunchtime today about Fells, but I didn’t have time to finish it. Anyway, the crux of it was that I didn’t think that he would show up tonight. He said in the pre-game that “Coach wants me to challenge people, and I believe I can take people”.

    Well Courtney, you did not even attempt to do it except once, and you scored easily on a lay up.

  15. LKNpackfan 02/18/2009 at 9:46 PM #

    nice of Fells to suit up today. Jeebus. I swear that kid plays with a concussion every game.

  16. saspack 02/18/2009 at 9:46 PM #

    We scored 80 points!!!

  17. Rochester 02/18/2009 at 9:46 PM #

    Final score is almost more respectable than it should be given the way we played for much of the second half, but it’s nice to see that we didn’t just curl into the fetal position and give up.

    Let’s bottle up whatever aggression we didn’t expend and beat the crap out of Virginia on Saturday.

  18. LKNpackfan 02/18/2009 at 9:47 PM #

    nice timing fred. same gripe, same time

  19. packer74 02/18/2009 at 9:48 PM #

    Covered the 20 point spread. They have better players and more of them. Reasonable showing. Next up is UVA who is attempting to blow a big lead against Tech.

  20. Rochester 02/18/2009 at 9:48 PM #

    what is the crowd saying?

    I analyzed it and it was: “We weren’t good enough to get into State.”

  21. JeremyH 02/18/2009 at 9:49 PM #

    also in the second half every miss or turnover equaled a four point swing.

  22. com state10 02/18/2009 at 9:50 PM #

    Tracy Smith is the man, overall solid effort by most. But God I hate losing.

    Looking forward to seein’ what we can do the last 6 or 7 games, I think we can get 4 wins and go into the ACC Tourny with strong momentum.

    NIT bound.

  23. Charlotte Packer 02/18/2009 at 9:50 PM #

    haha I thought or something like, “we are homos”

    But seriously at the end I thought I heard something about ‘packers’ or slackers’

  24. BAC79 02/18/2009 at 9:51 PM #

    I am still mystified why this team cannot play an entire 40 minutes. We have at least 6-10 minutes of absolute brain death every game, even the ones we win.

  25. MrPlywood 02/18/2009 at 9:51 PM #

    UNX 70% shooting and 1 TO in the 2nd half? Tough to beat that.

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