NC State Wins Third Straight With 69-48 Victory Over Northwestern

Box Score

Drew Crawford buried his first two three-point attempts, and those thoughts immediately started to creep in ... you know the ones I'm talking about. Like, ah crap this guy is going to hit eight threes tonight, isn't he? I can't help it--my brain just defaults to that crap with the slightest push. As it turned out, however, Northwestern would only make 11 more field goals in the entire game. NC State went on a 10-0 run after Crawford's second triple to take a 12-6 lead, and the Wolfpack didn't trail again on the way to a comfy 69-48 victory.

T.J. Warren led the way with 22 points and eight boards, Lennard Freeman recorded his first career double-double, Ralston Turner gave State some much-needed offense from beyond the arc, and Jordan Vandenberg continued his run of impressively efficient play.

Those efforts were more than enough to overwhelm Northwestern, which made just 23.3% of its twos while shooting 6-of-22 from outside. Crawford finished 5-of-16 from the floor, and Tre Demps was the only other player on the team to make more than a single field goal. This was easily NC State's best defensive effort of the season.

Afterward the win, we got more gems from Vandenberg.

Jordan Vandenberg, who trimmed down this offseason after gaining a lot of weight at the end of last season ...

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) December 5, 2013

"It was a sad time my losing all my teammates. I had my comfort food, after that I realized, oh god, they're all gone, I might have to play"

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) December 5, 2013

Comfort food? "You couldn't name something I didn't eat. Any kind of fast food. Any kind of burger. It was awesome."

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) December 5, 2013

"It was awesome for a good month and a half until I stepped on the scales and was like, oh wow."

— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) December 5, 2013