NC State 78, Boston College 60

Box Score

Wolfpack athletics will be the death of me. But not tonight.

The Pack started the second half with an 11-0 run that extended the lead to 15. After that point, Boston College would cut the lead to single digits just twice: at the 12:46 mark on a three-pointer by Sean Marshall and at the 11:45 mark on a layup by Craig Smith. On both occasions, the Wolfpack answered with a made shot to push the lead back above 10.

The last ten minutes of the game were academic, allowing all of us to relax. I would totally be cool with it if this sort of thing happened more often. Thanks in advance, Herb.

eFG%

NCSU: 75.6%
BC: 37.7%

Yeah, so that makes everything else pretty much irrelevant. Take this point from the preview, for instance:

The main reason why they're so stingy with the ball is because the guys who carry the offense--Dudley, Smith, Marshall--all have impressively low turnover rates. Creating turnovers has not been a strength of the Wolfpack's defense, so this is definitely a problem.

And it did prove to be a problem for the Pack; Boston College only committed six turnovers, giving them a significant edge in that category (BC's TO% was 10.3%, compared to NC State's 25.6%). But most of those extra possessions resulted in missed shots, and NC State shot so well that it could endure a high turnover rate.

NC State also lost the rebounding battle, though the Pack rebounded well at the offensive end (which isn't too surprising considering how poor of a defensive rebounding team Boston College is).

Offensive rebound rates: 44.7% for Boston College, 41.2% for State. The discrepancy in shooting percentages between the two teams was so large that Boston College ended up with twice as many offensive boards (21) as defensive boards (10). Don't see that too often.

All those offensive rebounds made for several BC possessions like the following:

MISSED JUMPER by Dudley, Jared
REBOUND (OFF) by (TEAM)
MISSED JUMPER by Smith, Craig
REBOUND (OFF) by Oates, John
MISSED LAYUP by Oates, John
REBOUND (OFF) by Hinnant, Louis
TURNOVR by Smith, Craig

Hopefully the Eagles will be okay. They're in the RPI top 50 and we need 'em to stay there.

What can you say about Cedric Simmons? Six-of-six from the field, 5-6 from the line. His level of play continues to amaze me. Last year he looked like a major work in progress. This year he looks like a burgeoning All-ACC player.