Associated Press
RALEIGH ó Michael Thompson and Northwestern made another unbeaten look, well, pretty beatable.
Thompson scored 22 points to lead the Wildcats past North Carolina State 65-53 on Tuesday night in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
Jeremy Nash added 12 points for Northwestern (6-1), which ran its winning streak to five and in a five-day span has given three unbeaten power-conference teams their first losses.
The Wildcats followed neutral-site victories over Notre Dame and Iowa State by leading the Wolfpack nearly from start to finish, went up by 14 and held off N.C. State’s best attempt to get within one possession of them.
In claiming a win in what coach Bill Carmody called “one of those grind-it-out kind of games,” they added another impressive line to a fast-growing postseason resume that they hope will earn them their first NCAA tournament berth.
“People, they’re doubting us, so our backs are against the wall,” Thompson said. “We just tell each other we have to stay together, and that just puts a chip on our shoulder. So we’re just out there with a lot of motivation, trying to prove everyone wrong.”
Tracy Smith had a season-high 23 points ó including 10 in a row down the stretch for the Wolfpack (5-1) ó on 9-for-18 shooting.
N.C. State cut it to 57-52 on Julius Mays’ layup at the 2-minute mark before Northwestern put the game in its point guard’s hands. Thompson converted a three-point play about 30 seconds later, then added another free throw to stretch the margin to nine and give the Wildcats plenty of breathing room while also impressing one of the most famous point guards in N.C. State history.
“He did what a leader, a veteran player should do ó he took it on his shoulders and he got it done,” Wolfpack coach ó and former star player ó Sidney Lowe said.
Dennis Horner had 11 points and Javier Gonzalez added 10. But Gonzalez was just 3 of 12 from the floor for the Wolfpack, who were held to a season-low point total and lost for just the fourth time in 29 nonconference home games under Sidney Lowe.
“We just couldn’t get that one stop that we needed, and we could never tie the game or take the lead,” Smith said.
The Wildcats led comfortably midway through the second half before things got chippy. Alex Marcotullio was whistled for a technical foul while he got tangled with Gonzalez near the scorer’s table, and that seemed to spark the Wolfpack, who reeled off six quick points and cut it to 47-43 on Smith’s fast-break dunk at the 9-minute mark.
“I just pulled the guys together, told them that we have to keep our composure, play smart and keep our heads at that point,” Thompson said. “The momentum was shifting, but you know, a technical foul, that’s something that really, really doesn’t happen for Northwestern. So we kind of used that as like motivation as if the coach got the technical foul.”
Coming off consecutive 20-point games against the Cyclones and Irish, John Shurna had 10 of his 11 points in the first half. Northwestern, which beat N.C. State for the first time in four meetings, has won six of its first seven games for the second straight year and third time under Carmody.
Using a steady stream of backdoor cuts and 3-pointers against N.C. State’s man-to-man defense, the Wildcats led for all but a few moments of the first half while forcing the Wolfpack to miss 14 of their first 17 shots.
They shot nearly 58 percent in the half, and seemed to have taken control late by hitting seven consecutive shots and using a 12-2 run to stretch their lead to 14. Shurna’s fast-break layup made it 32-18 at about the 4-minute mark, and during the rest of the half, only once did N.C. State get within single digits.
“I don’t think they were surprised ó they shouldn’t have been surprised” by Northwestern’s play, Lowe said. “But we didn’t have five guys on the floor at the start of the game that came out ready to play. We may have had three, 21/2. We didn’t have five.”