C.J. Leslie had a career game today as NC State rolled over St. Bonaventure 92-73. Leslie had 33 points and 8 rebounds in a game that included Scott Wood adding 23 points as well. Leslie and Wood basically took the Bonnies out by themselves.
Overall, it was the best team performance of the year and is a perfect way to go into the Christmas break. The only thing that jumped out to me from a negative point of view was that Richard Howell’s foul issues came back. After only having 7 fouls called on him in the last four games, today he fouled out and didn’t have a single point. Just something to keep an eye on as conference play begins in a couple of weeks.
Leslie looked like a player that not only was tabbed as the ACC preseason player of the year, but was backing up that accolade with no equivocations.
“Calvin was tough to guard today,” N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said, referring to Leslie by his first name. “I thought when he attacked the rim and was aggressive, he either scored or got fouled.”
Wood added a season-best 23 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Lorenzo Brown had a season-high 11 assists for the Wolfpack (9-2).
The nation’s most accurate shooting team shot 57 percent, never trailed and now heads into its weeklong holiday break on a five-game winning streak.
“The main thing is that we have games where it may be one guy, and lately I feel like it’s been all of us – all the leaders and upperclassmen, it’s been all of us playing well to a certain extent,” Leslie said. “It may be that one person is getting a little bit more and the other person can’t get it, but we all have stepped up and led and played fairly well these last couple games.”
