The NC State men’s basketball team rallied in the second half of last night’s opening round matchup of the NCAA Tournament against the LSU Tigers for a dramatic 66-65 win.
Sophomore forward BeeJay Anya was the hero of the night as the D.C. native powered through the paint and willed a six-foot leaning shot to go down with just 0.1 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Wolfpack trailed by 14 points at halftime and did not breach the Tiger’s double digit lead until just under 13 minutes remained in the contest.
With nine minutes left in the game, the Tigers extended their lead back to 14. In this critical sequence, head coach Mark Gottfried inserted sophomore Kyle Washington into the action. Washington had been averaging just 3.5 minutes per game in the Pack’s last four outings.
With 8:43 remaining in the game, Washington knocked down a deep corner two that ended a 2:22 scoring drought for the Wolfpack. At the 7:21 media timeout, the Minnesota native rose to another level and played perhaps the best two minutes of basketball of his entire life. During this stretch, Washington scored five points to go along with two offensive rebounds in just two NC State offensive possessions.
Washington’s first basket of the sequence came on a ferocious put back dunk that rattled Pittsburgh’s CONSOL Energy Center. Washington rose high above the rim and threw down the errant shot with one hand. On the next possession he knocked down a huge three point shot to reduce the LSU lead to just four points with 5:54 remaining.
The Wolfpack got the LSU lead down to three with under three minutes remaining when redshirt junior Trevor Lacey made an incredible contested jump shot that he nearly attempted from the baseline.
During the final two minutes, the game became oddly reminiscent of many finishes during the 1983 title team’s tournament run when the Pack’s opponent couldn’t buy a made free-throw shot. LSU missed all four of their free throw attempts with under two minutes remaining. In addition, the Tigers failed to hit their final six free throws of the game and went an abysmal 5-for-13 in the final ten minutes.
After freshman Abdul-Malik Abu hauled in the Tigers’ last missed free throw attempt with 1:03 remaining, Gottfried called a timeout. Out of the huddle, Gottfried drew up a play to free up redshirt senior Ralston Turner for three in hopes of tying the game.
The play began with Turner starting out on the right perimeter of the floor. As the play unfolded, Turner raced to the paint to receive a pick from Anya. However instead of continuing to the left post to receive another pick from Abu in hopes of getting open on the left wing, Turner returned to the right side around another pick from Anya where he flashed open for a three point attempt to tie the game. The shot rimmed out, but Anya was there to get the offensive rebound and finish the play with a huge tip in basket.
With the score 65-64 in favor of LSU with 44 seconds remaining, the Wolfpack needed just one defensive stop to secure an opportunity to win the game in regulation. The Tigers brought the game clock down to about 30 seconds before attacking the basket. LSU sophomore Jordan Mickey drove hard to the basket and missed a point blank layup. Lacey was there to grab the rebound with 22 seconds remaining.
After a State timeout with 13 seconds left, the ball was in Trevor Lacey’s hands in the waning seconds. Lacey drove to the middle of the floor and seemingly jumped to attempt a game winning shot right beneath the free-throw line. At the last second, Lacey changed his mind and dished it to Anya. Anya received the ball with four seconds left and threw up a turnaround hook shot with 3 seconds left. The ball hung on the rim for nearly all three seconds before finally dropping.
Abu was there and came inches away from touching the ball on the cylinder, which would have been called basketball interference and the goal would have been called off. Fortunately for the Pack, Abu pulled his hand away at the last second and BeeJay Anya engraved his name in Wolfpack NCAA Tournament history, booking a matchup against 1-seed Villanova in the third round.
