NC State 88, Wake Forest 74

Box Score (pdf)

NC StateFour FactorseFG%68.8Turnover Rate25.4Off Reb Rate25.0FTM/FGA19.6WakeFour FactorseFG%59.6Turnover Rate29.4Off Reb Rate37.9FTM/FGA23.1











-- How many times did you watch it? Costner brings the ball up the court, dribbles behind his back, through his legs, drives down the lane and slams the ball home. I probably rewound the DVR like eight times. Someone's got to YouTube that play. Courtney Fells also had a highlight reel dunk, though it was nullified by a traveling call.

-- Wake scored 74 points on 75 possessions, so we held them to under a point per. That's a big improvement over the 1.22 points/poss our previous three opponents averaged. The big difference was turnovers, but it also helped that Kyle Visser was a non-factor. Visser hit a field goal in the first five minutes of the game and didn't hit another until around the 15:00 mark of the second half. His lack of involvement is reflected in his usage for the game, which was 17% (well under the 26.9% he's averaging). Visser was frustrated by foul trouble and the 1-3-1; he managed only two rebounds in 25 minutes and had a turnover rate over 25%.

Wake Forest's guards really struggled to hang onto the ball, and they accounted for 17 of the team's 22 giveaways. Turnover rates:

Gurley -- 55.4%
Smith -- 47.3%
Drum -- 31.5%
Dukes -- 30.1%

-- For the first time all year, both McCauley and Costner played fewer than 30 minutes. Thanks to the working margin we enjoyed, Darrell Davis was able to give us 6 energetic minutes (I was impressed by his athleticism), and we even had sightings of Chad Williams and Justin Clark.

-- Aside from his 27 & 19 performance against UNCW, Brandon Costner hasn't played better than he did today. He scored efficiently (66.7% eFG) with nary a turnover, and posted excellent rebounding percentages at both ends.

-- One of many highlights for me was watching Bryan Nieman put a move on Michael Drum (pretty sure it was Drum, anyway) in the lane.

-- Dennis Horner is 9-11 from the field (5-6 from three) in his last two games. He's gone almost 60 minutes without committing a turnover.

-- Courtney Fells is 7-15 (46.7%) from three-point range over his last three games. Hopefully this is an indication that his jumper is coming around. I know he's better than a 25% shooter from outside, but that's what he has been for most of the season.

-- Grant's usage has been trending downward of late--whereas he had a streak of games earlier in the year where he used over 30% of the team's possessions, more recently he has been just as likely to be under 25% as near that 30 mark. He reversed that trend today by being much more aggressive. Turnovers remain a problem for him, but the possessions he used were otherwise well-spent.

Player %Poss ORtg eFG% TO%

Grant 32.7 105.6 67.9 31.8
Fells 27.6 95.0 66.7 33.2
Costner 23.5 144.5 66.7 0.0
McCauley 19.4 136.7 71.4 19.7
Horner 9.2 205.9 100 0.0