The men’s basketball team may have arrived in Atlanta, Ga. for the ACC Tournament as the No. 10 seed, but the Wolfpack came to town playing well and seemed to have the potential to make a run in the tournament.
Those feelings came to a quick halt Thursday night as State fell to the No. 7 seed Maryland in the first round of the tournament, 74-69.
Although the Pack played well and held a 12 point lead at the midway point of the first half, State could not hold off the Terrapins in the second half and fell in the first round for the second straight year.
Coach Sidney Lowe said his team played well but didn’t quite make all the plays necessary to pick up the win.
“For the most part, our guys played pretty solid, played a pretty good game,” Lowe said. “In the second half, we missed several defensive assignments and they made us pay.”
When Maryland visited the RBC Center and defeated the Pack less than two weeks ago, standout guard Greivis Vasquez torched State for 33 points and led the Terps to victory.
On Thursday, Vasquez used his distribution skills to lead Maryland to the win. He handed out 10 assists while tallying 17 points. Several of those assists came at key times and created opportunities for Maryland to get open looks at the basket from three point range. The Terps took advantage, hitting 56 percent from behind the arc for the game.
“A player like Vasquez is going to make you pay,” Lowe said.
Freshman guard Julius Mays, who had not seen significant playing time since early February, scored 18 points to lead the Pack in Thursday’s game. Lowe said the decision to play Mays came after he performed well in practice leading up to the tournament and because of a disciplinary issue with guard Farnold Degand.
“Julius has been playing well in practice, extremely well,” Lowe said. “He showed today that–his work and keeping his head up–and he did a nice job for us.”
Mays said he just wanted to take advantage of his opportunity to play after having not seen action lately.
“I’m constantly working on my game,” Mays said. “I’ve been trying to show coach in practice that I want to be out on the floor to help my team. The last month I’ve been having good practices and tonight he gave me my opportunity.”
Despite the unexpected offensive output from Mays, many of State’s normal contributors had subdued stat lines. Sophomore forward Tracy Smith saw only 23 minutes of action Thursday and scored just four points.
Lowe said the team, at times, was not as patient as necessary when trying to feed the ball into the post.
“The plan was to be patient and get it inside,” Lowe said. “When we were patient enough, we were good but we had a guy or two take quick ones and that’s not what we wanted. From that aspect, we weren’t disciplined enough.”
That lack of discipline led to the Pack attempting 27 three pointers and only hitting on eight of them.
With chances for an NCAA Tournament bid now officially gone, the Pack may receive consideration for NIT Tournament, which begins following the selection of the at-large teams in the NCAAs.
Senior Ben McCauley, who scored 14 points in his last ACC game, said he hoped he got another chance to play in a Wolfpack uniform.
“You kind of have to sit back now and watch to see if we’re lucky enough to play on,” he said. “Obviously I would love to keep playing. I love playing for this school. I don’t want it to end. If it is my last game I had a great career. I love this school and I’m not going to forget anything.”
Coach Sidney Lowe and the Pack will wait to see if they will be selected to the NIT.
