No. 25 N.C. State shrugged off some early foul trouble to defeat St. Bonaventure, 92-73 at PNC Arena Saturday, Dec. 22 in the fourth contest of its six-game home stand. With the win, the Pack improved to 9-2 overall while the Bonnies, from the Atlantic 10 Conference, fell to 7-4 on the season.
Junior forward C.J. Leslie led the way for State. The Holly Springs-native scored 18 of his career-high 33 points in the first half to help compensate for the loss of senior forward Richard Howell, who was charged with his second foul with 11:11 remaining in the first half and stayed in foul trouble throughout the contest. Howell, State’s leading scorer entering the game, fouled out with 3:41 remaining in the game and went scoreless.
“Veterans are here to pick you up” Leslie, the Preseason ACC Player of the Year, said. “I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. We have some important games coming up. We have to be more serious. I’m not saying I wasn’t serious before, but it’s time to buckle down and be ready to play.”
“Leslie’s a heck of a player, and he gets a lot of credit for what he did tonight,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said.
It was a balanced scoring attack once again for State, aided by junior point guard Lorenzo Brown dishing out a season-best 11 assists to go along seven points and six rebounds.
“That is a pretty strong game” N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried said of Brown’s performance. “I think that he (Brown), probably in the last four or five games, has really improved the way he has played since early in the year”
The Pack jumped out to an early 17-8 lead after seven minutes of action. St. Bonaventure would respond to cut the deficit to one point with a 10-2 run, propelled by the Bonnies’ seven-foot sophomore center Youssou Ndoye who would finish the game with 14 points along with 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.
State promptly responded with a 17-4 run, however, to stretch its lead to 36-22. The run was keyed by nine points and two assists from Leslie, and the Pack never looked back.
Sharp-shooting senior forward Scott Wood was also sensational, going 8-10 from the floor (5-7 from three-point range) and finished with 23 points overall along with four rebounds.
Overall, remained hot from the field, shooting a sizzling 57% from the floor (32-56) for the game. It currently leads the nation in field-goal percentage. State had 21 assists on its 32 baskets and committed 12 turnovers.
The Pack held the Bonnies to 41% shooting for the game and forced 14 turnovers.
State will take a week-long break for the holidays and Gottfried is happy with the lull in the action.
“It makes for a much better Christmas, to win” Gottfried said. “With going to Puerto Rico through Thanksgiving, coming back, we need a few days (away from basketball) here.”
“We can’t take many nights off,” Gottfried said.
The Pack will return to action on Saturday, Dec. 29 at PNC Arena against Western Michigan. Gametime is noon and it will be telecast on ESPNU.
