Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
North Carolina State
Deacons Upset No. 22 Wolfpack, 76-63
3/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2006
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Beating a ranked opponent for the first time didn't erase all the frustration in a surprisingly bad year for Wake Forest.
Still, any little bit of success helps.
Eric Williams had 22 points and 16 rebounds to help the Demon Deacons beat No. 22 North Carolina State 76-63 on Saturday.
Justin Gray scored 16 points for the Demon Deacons (15-15, 3-13 Atlantic Coast Conference).
There were plenty of reasons why the Demon Deacons handed the Wolfpack (21-8, 10-6) a third straight loss to close the regular season. They shot 61 percent to build a 12-point halftime lead and pushed that margin to 17 points after the break. They took a 45-32 edge on the glass. They held N.C. State - one of the ACC's top 3-point shooting clubs - to 4-for-29 from behind the arc in a miserable shooting day (26 percent).
"We're not a team to quit," Williams said. "We've lost close games and it's been a rough season, but it wouldn't have been right if we'd laid down and just rolled over."
The losses weighed heavily on Williams, Gray and the rest of the seniors. They helped the Demon Deacons win an ACC regular-season title as freshmen, reached the NCAA round of 16 as sophomores and teamed with All-American point guard Chris Paul to earn the school's first No. 1 ranking as juniors.
The way Gray figures, that class - which ranks as one of the most successful in school history - has a final chance to leave an impression.
"People always will remember the last couple of things you do," said Gray, who shot just 3-for-17 but had six assists with no turnovers. "Hopefully this win can catapult us to get some more wins in the tournament."
The feeling was far different for the Wolfpack, which played without injured leading scorer Cameron Bennerman. N.C. State had a week to shake off consecutive home losses to North Carolina and Boston College, but couldn't bounce back and heads into the league tournament with little momentum.
"I guess we're going to go in under the radar now," said senior Ilian Evtimov, who had just two points on 0-for-4 shooting in 27 minutes. "People are going to say that we're not playing real well. But that's not a bad situation to be in, knowing that you are a very good basketball team that's just going through a bad stretch."
Bennerman, who averaged a team-high 13 points, sat out with a pulled hamstring that kept him out of practice this week. That opened the door for Gavin Grant to make just his second start in the past 23 games, and the sophomore responded by scoring 21 points to come within a point of matching his career high.
But he was the only Wolfpack player to step up in Bennerman's absence. Engin Atsur scored 23 points but shot 5-for-16 from the field and 2-for-10 on 3-pointers, while Williams completely outplayed Cedric Simmons in the paint.
Simmons, a 6-foot-9 sophomore averaging 12 points per game, finished with 10 but didn't make a field goal.
N.C. State managed to hang in the game by shooting 29-for-34 at the foul line.
N.C. State ranked second in the ACC in 3-point shooting (39 percent) and led the league with an average of 9.5 made 3s per game. But the Wolfpack missed its first 12 shots behind the arc, and couldn't rally after Wake Forest built a 42-30 halftime lead.
