Men’s basketball coach Sidney Lowe paced the sidelines of the RBC Center for the first time Friday night, coaching his team to a 78-71 victory over Northern State, a Division II team from South Dakota.
Northern State jumped out to an early advantage, leading 29-18 at one point in the first half. It was then that N.C. State’s defense and three consecutive three-pointers, two from senior guard Bryan Nieman and one from freshman forward Dennis Horner sparked a 20-0 Pack run to close the half leading 38-29.
The lead dwindled in the second half as the teams traded baskets and though the Pack trailed Northern State at times in the second half, it eventually took control for the win. According to Lowe, he would have liked to have seen his team control the game in the second half like it did on the 20-0 first half run.
“They were very patient on the offensive end and we were able to tighten up the defense a little and get some stops and went on a nice 20-0 run,” Lowe said. “I would like to see us come out in the second half and pick it up again, and that’s what I tell these guys. If you get a lead in the first half, you want to come out and really try to jump on a team, especially when you’re at home.”
Junior forward Gavin Grant led all scorers with 26 points and 8 rebounds Friday, with sophomore forward Ben McCauley adding 19 for the Pack. Nieman, a former Wake Forest Rollesville standout and walk-on transfer from Gulf Coast Community College, also added 13 points, hitting three of his five three-point attempts. Nieman played only 10 minutes for the Pack under coach Herb Sendek.
“Bryan Nieman was huge for us,” Lowe said. “Not just from an offensive standpoint where he made some shots, but defensively. He really denied the basketball, denied their shooters the ball.”
Nieman said he credits the play of his teammates for his success in Friday’s showdown.
“I’m sure I surprised some people,” Nieman said. “But I always knew I was capable of doing that. Courtney [Fells] and Gavin did a really good job of drawing the defense and kicking it out to open shooters. They were very aggressive on defense, but we ended up handling it all right toward the end.”
Northern State pressured the Pack full court nearly the entire game with a barrage of substitutions and fresh bodies compared with only seven State players who saw playing time. Northern State forced 20 Pack turnovers in the game, and according to McCauley, they were caused by Northern State’s defense.
“We’re pretty much new to each other playing out there,” McCauley said. “They played well defensively. I’ll give them that. They played a heck of a game, but I think we just got to get used to playing with each other.”
The Pack was without senior guard Engin Atsur because of a sore Achilles’ heel, leaving Grant to handle the responsibility of point guard, a job he said he felt comfortable with. He also attributed part of the difficulty of protecting the ball to the loss of Atsur.
“Once Engin comes back it will be me and him in the back court handling the ball,” Grant said. “Today it was me by myself. So whenever I didn’t have it, it seemed like we didn’t have really good ball handlers. The guys can handle the ball, they were probably a little nervous, but when we get Engin back it will be Engin handling the ball as the primary ball handler.”
According to Lowe, Atsur’s heel is feeling better, but he did not want to risk reinjuring it in the exhibition match. He said not having Atsur was good because it gave players like Nieman and junior guard Braxton Albriton the opportunity to get used to playing quality minutes.
“It felt good today, but we wanted to keep the boot on it to protect it some more,” Lowe said. “This is actually good for us.”
Despite the close score, Lowe said he felt good about his team’s performance on Friday.
“I was actually pleased with the way we played for the first night out and really playing against a very good opponent, a well-coached team and disciplined team, a structured team,” Lowe said.”One of my coaches reminded me again. He said, ‘Coach we’ve got a young group here,’ but I was really proud of those guys.”
According to McCauley, the team will learn from the exhibition and continue to improve.
“Obviously a lot is new,” McCauley said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. But overall I think we’ve got a good idea of what we’ve got to do and what we have done already. We’ve got some work to do and some things to work out, but down along the season we’re going to do pretty well.”