2015 NCAA Tournament: North Carolina State Escapes LSU 66-65

North Carolina State rallied from 16 points down barely getting by LSU 66-65 during first round NCAA Tournament action on Thursday. BeeJay Anya’s hook shot with 0.1 seconds sank the Tigers and advance the Wolf Pack into the round of 32.

The No. 8 seeded Wolf Pack of N.C. State and the No. 9 seed LSU Tigers were both at-large teams which were teams that received a bid into the tournament without receiving their conference’s automatic bid by winning their conference tournament. The teams were playing in Pittsburgh with the right to face No. 1 seed in the East Region, Villanova, upon advancing.

The Tigers big men Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey dominated the paint as LSU outscored N.C. State 28-8 in the paint in the first half. LSU guard Tim Quarterman guided the Tiger offense to 40-26 lead at the intermission leading the team with 10 points and six assists.

Unfortunately for LSU, it was a tale of two halves for N.C. State. The Wolf Pack came out of the locker room with a mission. Anthony Barber and Abdul-Malik Abu electrified N.C. State in the second half as they quickly closed their deficit. With 8:36 left in the game, the Wolf Pack were trailing 62-48 and suddenly went on an incredible 10-0 to close the gap to four.

N.C. State had all the momentum for the final five plus minutes of the game as they locked down on defense. LSU missed their final 12 field goal attempts and last six free throws as they choked away their lead.

Forward Beejay Anya put back the Wolf Pack within one, 65-64 with 44 seconds left.  After a timeout with 13 seconds on the clock, Trevor Lacey drove towards the hoop passing the ball to Anya as the Tigers’ defense was pouring down on him. Anya flipped a shot up with only a few seconds left and the ball went through the net with a tenth of a second to go to clinch the game for N.C. State.

With star player Trevor Lacey struggling for the Wolf Pack, Anthony Barber led the team with 17 points. Abdul-Malik Abu contributed to the win with 13 points.

LSU was led by Jarell Martin who had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Jordan Mickey who finished with 12 points and 14 rebounds.

After the game N.C. State Coach Mark Gottfried said, “Amazing things can happen. Today was a great day, exciting day in that regard.  For us, being a part of it, being on the good end, it ended up being a great day for us too.”

LSU forward Jarell Martin said after the loss, “We wasn’t ready for our season to end right now. We worked real hard and felt like we had a great shot…we weren’t able to convert on the offensive end…we just couldn’t get ball to fall in.”

N.C. State advances to play Villanova on Saturday for a chance to get to the Sweet Sixteen.

 

Written by By Charlie Beuttel

Photo credit: Gene J. Puskar; No. 21 Beejay Anya celebrates a buzzer beater with his teammates after downing LSU 66-65.