BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. – Marquette’s Dominic James dribbled the ball for more than 20 seconds on the game’s final play, beat a double-team and knocked in a game-winning 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds on the clock as the unranked Golden Eagles beat NC State 68-65 Monday night at the RBC Center.
“That’s a tough loss for us right there,” Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe said afterwards. “I thought at times we played well against a good ball club. But we didn’t play it smart as I would have liked us to. We made some bad decisions. Their senior guards stepped up and made some big plays for them. We made a couple mistakes on the defensive end at the end of the game.”
Wolfpack center Ben McCauley answered James by making a shot from the top of the key after a three-quarters-court inbounds pass, but officials determined after watching a television replay that the shot was inside the 3-point line and after the buzzer went off.
The Golden Eagles, who took a narrow lead mid-way through the second half, could never pull away in the game, as the two teams went back and forth throughout. James gave his team its biggest lead of the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from the top of the key with just under four minutes to play, giving Marquette a 65-59 advantage.
But NC State senior Courtney Fells answered with a shot beyond the arc, and James let his foot slide after catching a pass and was whistled for a traveling violation. On the Pack’s trip down the court, Costner drained a long 3-pointer to give him a game-high 24 points in the contest.
The Wolfpack had two chances to take the lead in the final 90 seconds, but McCauley missed a pair of free throws and had the ball stripped out of his hands by a defensive double-team as he went up for a shot in the lane with 25.6 seconds to play.
“We had some costly turnovers, including one by me down in the post,” McCauley said. “I take full blame for that. We just had some bad turnovers.”
Costner had another big scoring night, especially in the first half, when he netted 16 of his 24 points. Fells finished the game with 12 and Tracy Smith had 10.
Marquette was led by 20 points from Jerel McNeal, 18 points from James and 16 from Lazar Hayward.
Lowe was not disappointed in his team’s performance – the Pack made 51.1 percent of its shots from the field and out-rebounded the Eagles 29-25 – but he was disappointed at the defensive execution at the end of the game.
The coach had called for a trap with Farnold Degand and Ben McCauley beyond the top of the key, but James reversed out of it and got free for the open look at the basket.
“We had something planned on that last play and we didn’t execute it,” Lowe said.
The Eagles, who took a narrow lead mid-way through the second half, could never pull away in the game, as the two teams went back and forth throughout. James gave his team its biggest lead of the game with back-to-back 3-pointers from the top of the key with just under four minutes to play, giving Marquette a 65-59 advantage.
But State’s 18 turnovers were costly and that proved to be on of the deciding factors in the Pack’s second loss to a team that has been ranked this season.
“I feel comfortable knowing that we can be in these games,” Lowe said. “That’s a pretty good ball club right there. They are experienced. We have to take something from these games.”
Costner was hard to stop in the game’s early going. He not only scored the Pack’s first 11 points, he also assisted on the next basket, a slam dunk by sophomore Tracy Smith, then added a follow dunk himself for good measure, as State went ahead 15-9 seven minutes into the first half.
Marquette came back to take a brief lead, 23-20, but the Pack scored 10 unanswered points to regain the advantage. Junior Trevor Ferguson started it with a 3-pointer from the wing, followed by five consecutive points from Courtney Fells, who returned to the starting lineup after a two-game absence because of an ankle injury.
McCauley finished off the run with a pair of free throws. After a Marquette basket, Costner hit another 3-pointer to match the Pack’s biggest lead of the first half 33-26.
At intermission, Costner had 16 points and five rebounds, and the Wolfpack had a 35-32 lead.
During halftime, the school honored members of the 1974 ACC and NCAA Championship team that beat Marquette in Greensboro in the national title game. David Thompson, Tommy Burleson, Monte Towe, Moe Rivers, Tim Stoddard, Phil Spence and many other members of the team, as well as support staff were on hand for the half-time event.
The Wolfpack returns to action on Monday, Dec. 29, against Loyola of Maryland in a 7 p.m. contest at the RBC Center.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
Courtesy: Mark McIntyre
