Associated Press
GREENSBORO -- N.C. State spent a frustrating chunk of the first half playing like a team whose next trip to Greensboro won’t last very long. After the break, though, the Wolfpack sure looked like they could get used to winning here.
Tracy Smith scored 21 points, Dennis Horner had 15 of his 17 in the second half and N.C. State beat UNC Greensboro 89-67 on Thursday night.
The Wolfpack (10-3) never trailed in establishing a season scoring high and winning their second straight. They made up for blowing most of an early 15-point lead by forcing a season-best 21 turnovers, shooting nearly 68 percent in the second half and eventually settling in nicely at the site of the upcoming ACC Tournament.
"You always feel comfortable when you make some shots," said freshman sharpshooter Scott Wood, who finished with season highs of five 3-pointers and 15 points.
Ben Stywall had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Spartans (2-10), who lost their sixth straight and fell to 0-5 this season — and 1-31 all-time — against the ACC.
"We always gain confidence because it’s an ACC team, and it’s high-level competition," Stywall said. "But at the same time, we’re not coming in looking to just lose by 10 or lose by 15. We’re coming in looking to win. We’re just trying to take everything we’re learning out here and put it to use in (Southern Conference) play."
N.C. State didn’t turn the ball over during the first 15 minutes of the second half and put the game away with a 20-4 run that began with about 13 1/2 minutes to play.
Horner started the decisive run with two free throws to make it 47-39, and his jumper at the 10-minute mark pushed the Wolfpack’s lead into double figures to stay. Wood’s 3 from the corner capped the burst, made it 69-47 and pushed N.C. State’s lead into the 20s for the first time.
"Once we started getting stops, we turned that into transition, and once we got a little lead on them, they had to start trapping a little bit," Wood said. "We just made the extra pass, and we knocked (shots) down."
Javier Gonzalez also scored 15 for the Wolfpack, who made a strong start stand against a regional mid-major opponent for the second straight game.
Just as in the win against Winthrop two nights earlier, N.C. State raced out to a big early lead. The Wolfpack opened this one with a 23-8 run over 9 1/2 minutes, hitting 9 of 15 shots. Four of those baskets belonged to Smith, and all were from point-blank range.
Then came the offensive inconsistency that at times has plagued them.
Facing an opponent that has grown increasingly comfortable against ACC teams, the Wolfpack went nearly 7 1/2 minutes between field goals and allowed the Spartans to get back in the game.
"I was pleased with the initial (run), absolutely, the way we came out, but then I thought we lost our concentration a little bit and relaxed a little bit," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "We knew they were going to make a run. But I felt that we sort of relaxed and they took advantage of it."
UNC Greensboro used a 16-4 burst led by its guards to cut it to 27-24 with roughly 2 1/2 minutes left, and trailed 32-28 at the break on Brandon Evans’ 15-footer about a second before the buzzer.
Evans had 14 points, Korey Van Dussen scored 12 points and Brian Cole finished with 10 for UNC Greensboro, which at least has made progress against the power-conference teams on the schedule. For the second straight game, the Spartans kept things competitive for a while after halftime. They were coming off a 15-point loss to Wake Forest and face Maryland on Sunday in the final game of their pseudo-ACC schedule.
"Going through this whole stretch (on the) schedule, I felt that we were getting tougher as a team ... meaning, we’re battling really hard," UNC Greensboro coach Mike Dement said. "The problem is, we’re running out of steam by battling so hard, and we gas out quickly. ... Each one of those games, those (ACC) teams seem to have gone on this major spurt where they’ve hit everything. And then we just seem not to be much of a defensive presence during that stretch. So, we just have to keep battling."
