RALEIGH, NC ? North Carolina State connected on 12-of-16 from the free throw line in overtime and survived a school record 16 three-pointers by UNC Greensboro in a 95-93 Wolfpack victory Tuesday night in men’s basketball action at the RBC Center.
UNCG (6-7), which had a four-game winning streak snapped, was led by Kendall Toney’s 28 points. Toney, a freshman from Charlotte, NC, hit eight three-pointers, the most ever by a UNCG freshman and one short of a school record set by Kevin Oleksiak last year.
Kyle Hines had 27 points and six rebounds for the Spartans, extending his double figure scoring streak to a school record 34 games. It was Hines’ third straight game of 20 or more points for Hines and the seventh time this season he topped the mark.
Ricky Hickman had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. The Winston-Salem, NC connected on five three-pointers. Freshman forward Mikko Koivisto chipped in 13 points for the Spartans.
It was the first time in UNCG’s Division I era (since 1991-92) that three Spartans topped the 20-point mark in the same game.
The Wolfpack (10-4) had four players in double figures, led by Ben McCauley’s 26 points. He also had 10 rebounds and eight assists and scored six of his points in the overtime session. Brandon Costner and Courtney Fells each had 19 points, while Gavin Grant added 18 points for NC State.
“It was a good game, a great college basketball game,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “It came down to a couple of plays at the end and they made more of them than we did. I didn’t think we had much defense or rebounding on our part, and they really hurt us on the boards in the second half and overtime. We had a couple of chances at the end of regulation, but we just couldn’t get the shot to fall. We played hard and should be proud of the way we played, but you don’t want to play that well and let one get away.
“(Kendall) Toney, Mikko (Koivisto) and Ricky (Hickman) hit some threes for us. They doubled on Kyle (Hines),but we kept going in to him because we felt he could kick it back to some open guys. He’s a very unselfish player.”
“(Hines) is a talented player,” said NC State coach Sidney Lowe. “He can flat out play. He can score against anyone. When you have that kind of ability, it really doesn’t matter who you play against. He can just score; he’s strong and he’s longer than you think. He has long arms and good explosion, and he uses that body so well.
“They hit some unbelievable shots when we had a guy in their face and they executed well. But in the end, we dug in and made plays.”
Hickman gave UNCG a three-point lead with 21 seconds left in regulation, 77-74, but Grant knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key with nine seconds left to tie it, 77-77. The Spartans had one last chance at the end of regulation, but Hickman’s fallaway 13-footer hit off the back of the rim and the game headed to overtime.
“I thought it was good,” said Hines afterwards. “I was ready to jump into the crowd and go crazy because I thought it was in and we had them.”
In overtime, NC State scored first when McCauley took it down low and drew Hines’ fourth foul. McCauley hit both shots to give the Wolfpack a two-point lead, 79-77. After UNCG miss, McCauley beat the Spartan defense down the floor for an 81-77 lead.
Hines was fouled on the next possession and connected on both to cut it to two, but NC State answered on the next possession with another McCauley bucket and Hines was called for his fifth foul a minute later.
It was a scene reminiscent of December 5, 2000, when the Spartans gave the Wolfpack all they could handle for 40 minutes before falling 77-76, at the RBC Center. This time, UNCG gave NC State all it could for 45 minutes.
The teams came out hot and got up and down the floor in a hurry early. Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the floor in the first 10 minutes of the contest with UNCG taking a 23-21 lead on Toney’s fifth three-pointer of the night with 9:45 to play in the half.
The Spartans led by as many as six in the first half before NC State rallied. The Wolfpack held UNCG without a field goal for nearly three minutes and ran off seven straight points to take a 35-34 lead with 3:49 left before half.
But UNCG regained the lead before heading to the locker room. Coming out of a timeout, Koivisto came off a screen and knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key to give the Spartans a 42-38 lead. Costner, however, answered with a trey from the left corner just before time expired to trim UNCG’s lead to 42-41 at the break.
The Spartans took an eight-point lead to open the second half, going right to Hines from the outset. The All-America candidate from Sicklerville, NJ scored seven points in the first 2:10 of the second half to give UNCG a 51-43 lead.
A steal and a coast-to-coast lay-up by Hines put him over the 20-point for the night, the 17th time during his streak he has scored 20 or more, to give UNCG a double-digit lead for the first time, 55-45.
The lead hit 11 before the Wolfpack began slicing into it. As UNCG went nearly six minutes without a field goal, the Wolfpack put together a 10-1 run, the last five points at the free throw line, to cut the Spartan lead to two, 59-57 with just under 11 minutes to play.
NC State suffered a setback when Brandon Costner picked up his fourth foul with just 9:53 to play. But momentum stayed with the Wolfpack as Courtney Fells knocked down both ends of a one-and-one to give the Wolfpack a 61-60 lead with 8:36 left.
When the drought finally broke, UNCG bounced back. The Spartans hit three in a row from the field, capped off by a 15-footer by Mikko Koivisto from the left baseline to give UNCG a 67-63 lead.