Wolfpack Surge Past Shorthanded Spartans

UNCG 68 - #23 NC State 89

UNCG Athletics
NC State Athletics

Halftime: UNCG 36 - NC State 43

UNCG Stats
Leader points: Kayel Locke (21)
Leader Rebounds: Kelvin McNeil (10)
Leader Assists: Drew Parker (3)
Team FG: 29-67 (43.3%)
Team 3 Pt: 2-17 (11.8%)
Team FT: 8-13 (61.5%)
Rebounds: 34
Turnovers: 10

NC State Stats
Leader Points: CJ Leslie (21)
Leader Rebounds: Richard Howell (13)
Leader Assists: Lorenzo Brown (9)
Team FG: 32-60 (53.3%)
Team 3 Pt: 8-18 (44.4%)
Team FT: 17-22 (77.3%)
Rebounds: 37
Turnovers: 11

Thoughts
With no Trevis Simpson (sprained ankle - day-to-day) against a team that was absolutely a bad match up for the Spartans, this game had the potential to really get ugly quickly. Instead, the Spartans came together and played their best half of the season. The starters played with a lot of energy and Kayel Locke came in to provide an offensive spark. Even freshman Jordan Potts, who hadn't seen a lot of playing time, came off the bench to make several nice shots.

As I said in my preview, NC State leads the country in FG % and doesn't stray much from their strengths. The Wolfpack feed Leslie and Howell the ball and them work their way to open shots. So, the Spartans needed a huge scoring effort from a lot of people and having the 15th leading scorer in the country not available just left the Spartans with no enough firepower.

However, I've talked in the past few games about how UNCG spent way too much time Simpson watching. Well, not having Simpson forced a lot of different UNCG players to get involved in the game. I think in the long run, this might be a good thing. Go Spartans !!!