Dec. 30, 2007

Box Score

Raleigh, N.C. - Western Carolina opened with an 8-0 run to stake itself to a lead it would hold for three quarters of the game Saturday afternoon. However, foul trouble and a subsequent 27 Wolfpack points from the free throw line allowed North Carolina State to escape with a 12-point, come-from-behind 74-62, victory in front of 14,729 at the RBC Center.

NCSU shot 82-percent from the charity stripe, connecting on 27-of-33 attempts while Western drained its only two free throw attempts of the day at the 3:43 mark of the second half.

"I could not be more proud of our team with the way that they competed today," said WCU head coach Larry Hunter, who spent four seasons as an associate head coach under Herb Sendek at North Carolina State prior to coming to Cullowhee. "We played with an extra bit of toughness and intensity. We did not shoot as well as we would have liked in the second half, but overall the guys gave an incredible effort."

Hunter added, "We are not a real physical type of basketball team. We do not have those type of bodies, and we are young. I think we just got tired. (NC State) just had more depth and size."

The Catamounts (4-8) were led by sophomore Brandon Giles with 25 points, 16 of which came in the opening 20 minutes. The Auburndale, Fla., native connected on 11 of his career-high 23 field goal attempts including three 3-pointers.

"He's inside; he's outside; he likes to score," said N.C. State head coach Sidney Lowe about WCU's Giles. "Sometimes we allowed him to go on a scoring streak. He has the ability and the confidence and just went with it."

Freshman Michael Porrini and sophomore Jake Robinson added nine and eight points, respectively, off the bench as WCU outscored the Wolfpack reserves for the game, 23-to-17. Porrini added a pair of assists and tied his career-best with four steals, while frontcourt classmate Blake Gallagher led the Catamounts with six rebounds.

Western opened the game red-hot from the floor, connecting on its first six 3-pointers en route to building its first of seven first half 10-point leads at 24-14 on a Porrini trey at the 9:32 mark. NC State would only manage to pull to within six, 38-32, the remainder of the half until Robinson buried a triple with 12 seconds showing on the clock to give Western a nine-point halftime lead, 41-32.

The Catamounts shot 70-percent (7-for-10) from long range and only committed two first half turnovers while forcing 11 by the Wolfpack through the first 20 minutes of play.

Things cooled for Western after the break, however, as the Catamounts missed nine of their first 14 shots after the break as NCSU commenced on a 19-to-4 run to erase the deficit and surge ahead. The Pack took its first lead of the game on a Brandon Costner 3-pointer at the 11:34 mark of the second half, 47-45. N.C. State managed to stretch its lead to six before Giles again flexed his muscle scoring seven-straight for the Cats to knot the game at 55 with seven and a half to play.

Down four, 61-57, freshman Camden Miller hit his second 3-pointer of the contest to bring Western to within one, 61-60. State scored on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to three before Porrini connected on the Catamounts' lone two free throw attempts of the game to again pull within a point. However, WCU was outscored 11-0, including seven from the charity stripe, over the final 3:42 as NCSU escaped with the win.

North Carolina State (9-3) put three players in double figures led by a career-high 33 points from freshman J.J. Hickson, who finished 10-of-11 from the floor and 13-of-16 from the free throw line. Hickson added a game-high 13 points to record the double-double. Ben McCauley tallied 12 points while Brandon Costner scored 10 and dished out seven assists for the Pack.

Western Carolina returns to Southern Conference action in the new year on Thursday, Jan. 3 as it travels to the newly renovated Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C., to face the Furman Paladins. Tip-off is set for 7:00 pm.