Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
3-5
North Carolina State
5-3
Bucknell Falls 99-86 in Shootout at N.C. State
12/5/2015 3:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. – In a game in which both teams shot over 50 percent and combined for 22 made 3-poiners, North Carolina State had enough down the stretch to break open a close game and defeat Bucknell 99-86 on Saturday afternoon at PNC Arena.
Chris Hass hit a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 29 points, Zach Thomas tallied a career-high 25 points, and Nana Foulland added 18 for the Bison. Bucknell (3-5) shot 51.6 percent from the field and went 13-for-27 from 3-point range, but N.C. State (5-3) also shot very well.
The Wolfpack came in shooting 31 percent from 3-point range and 69 percent from the foul line, but they hit 9 of 17 from the arc and 28 of 35 at the line, outscoring the Bison 28-9 from the charity stripe. Maverick Rowan scored 27 points, Cat Barber had 24 and Caleb Martin 21 for N.C. State. Martin (5-9) and Rowan (4-7) combined for all nine of the Wolfpack's 3-pointers.
After trailing by as many as 15, Bucknell rallied to take a 73-72 lead on a Kimbal Mackenzie pull-up in the lane with 8:25 to play. After Martin answered with a late-shot-clock 3-pointer, Thomas made a layup to tie the game at 75-all.
At the other end, an N.C. State pass pinballed around in the lane and ended up in the hands of Cody Martin under the basket for a layup, and that would give the Wolfpack the lead for good with 7:24 to go.
A couple of traveling calls and a pair of missed threes helped lead to a 10-0 N.C. State run that pushed the lead back to 10 at 85-75 with 4:19 to go. The Wolfpack went 8-for-8 at the foul line in the final 1:01 to ice the game.
“I thought we did everything you could ask for,” said head coach Nathan Davis afterward. “We competed, we battled, we helped work with each other and every time they needed a play they made it. They made open shots when they got them, they made the tough shots when they got them, they were able to just do enough to keep us at bay. I thought that our guys gave a tremendous effort, we're not happy with the outcome, but if we continue to play like that then we are going to be just fine moving forward.”
Hass came in looking to snap out of a 3-for-21 slump from 3-point range, and did he ever. He made seven of his first 10 from the arc before finishing 7-for-14 (10-for-18 overall). The seven treys were the most by a Bucknell player since Bryson Johnson hit nine against West Alabama in 2011-12.
The Bison trailed 61-49 five minutes into the second half before Hass connected on three treys and a backdoor layup in a span of 3:26 to get them back in it. His seventh bomb of the night, this one from about 25 feet out, cut it to 68-62.
Later, Hass drove to the basket and fired a pass back to the top of the key for a Thomas 3-pointer, and then Thomas drove and dished to Foulland for a jam that made it 72-69. Thomas rebounded his own miss and put it back in to cut the deficit to one, and then after a Rowan miss, Mackenzie scored in the lane to give the Bison the lead in front of a silenced crowd of 16,378.
Bucknell led by as many as six points early at 11-5 after a Dom Hoffman 3-pointer, but then Barber took over for the Wolfpack, scoring 10 straight points in a 13-0 run. Barber had 14 of their first 18 points, but he picked up his third foul at the 11:24 mark on a Stephen Brown drive to the basket.
Barber went to the bench, and N.C. State played the rest of the half with five players on the floor at least 6-7 tall. Rowan picked up the slack, hitting a couple of threes to put the Wolfpack up 48-33, but Thomas closed the half with a pair of treys to make it a 48-39 game at the break.
“I thought that we did a good job defensively a lot of times,” said Davis “I thought that there were a few times here and there where we lost some guys that could shoot and they made shots. But I also thought they made a lot of tough shots. They got in the lane and finished over some people, they made some shots on pull-ups that were contested. You have to give them credit, they made plays. We got them to take a lot of the shots we wanted them to take.”
Bucknell finished with 22 assists on 32 field goals and only nine turnovers. Thomas and Ryan Frazier had five assists each, while Brown had four. The Bison forced 14 turnovers, with Brown and Thomas coming up with three steals apiece.
In addition to the wide disparity at the free-throw line, N.C. State also benefitted from 40-21 rebounding advantage. The Wolfpack converted 16 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.
Bucknell and N.C. State, who were both once coached by Jim Valvano, were meeting for the first time. The Bison led both of this season's Atlantic Coast Conference opponents in the second half, but came away 0-2 against Wake Forest and N.C. State.
Bucknell has one more game before breaking for final exams. The Bison will visit preseason Northeast Conference favorite Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
