The Associated Press
GREENSBORO (AP) — Tracy Smith had 19 points and eight rebounds, and North Carolina State continued Clemson’s misery in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament with a 59-57 victory in the first round on Thursday night.
Ending a day of upsets, the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (18-14) built a double-digit lead early in the second half and withstood a late rally to continue their surprising late-season surge. N.C. State, which has won four of five, will face third-seeded Florida State on Friday in the quarterfinals.
The sixth-seeded Tigers (21-10) got 17 points and eight rebounds from Trevor Booker, but he got little help. Clemson shot 39 percent from the field, 56 percent from the foul line and committed 15 turnovers in yet another early exit.
Clemson, the only original ACC school not to win the tournament, fell to 16-57 in the event with 43 of those losses coming in its first game.
With the Wolfpack ahead 53-47, Javier Gonzalez drove the lane and missed a runner, but Richard Howell tipped it in with 2:10 left. A late 3-pointer by Clemson’s Demontez Stitt cut the lead to two, but the Tigers never got the ball back as N.C. State joined 12th-seeded Miami and No. 9 seed Virginia in beating higher seeds on the opening day.
Perhaps fittingly, the only lower-seeded team to follow form and lose and was defending national champion and 10th-seed North Carolina, continuing an unpredictable season that now includes the Wolfpack in the final eight.
It was a fun night for fourth-year coach Sidney Lowe, who broke out his red coat usually reserved for games against rivals Duke and North Carolina, and ended a two-year streak of losing in the ACC tournament first round.
That’s something Clemson knows all about.
The Tigers entered their final regular season game with five wins in six games and in good shape for the NCAA tournament. But a loss to Wake Forest dropped them from the third seed to the sixth, and they never found an offensive rhythm against N.C. State.
Noel Johnson added 12 points, but Stitt was held to nine points for the Tigers, whose press forced 19 turnovers but didn’t lead to many easy baskets.
The game matched two of the league’s top, if undersized, big men. Booker, a first-team all-ACC pick, and Smith, a second-team selection, exchanged thunderous dunks on consecutive possessions in a sloppy first half that ended with N.C. State ahead 25-21.
Clemson wanted to push the pace, but it led to nine first-half turnovers as the Wolfpack built a 24-16 lead before going the final 3 minutes without a field goal.
Wolfpack point guard Gonzalez limped off the floor with a tender ankle early in the first half, but returned despite a slight limp and helped the Wolfpack take a 42-32 lead on Scott Wood’s 3-pointer with 12:52 left.
Howell added nine points and 11 rebounds, and Farnold Degand scored nine points for N.C. State, which shot 52 percent from the field.
