North Carolina State came into Friday`s NCAA East Regional semifinal matchup against top-seeded Georgetown with the idea of silencing the Hoyas`
top guns, center Alonzo Mourning and guard Charles Smith.
Almost any day that`s pretty smart thinking. But on this day, as peaked as Smith has been feeling the last couple of days, he`s been talking to nothing but his own pillow.
So it was left to somebody else to step forward and lead the Hoyas to Sunday`s regional championship game against Duke. That somebody was junior guard Dwayne Bryant. Bryant hit seven of nine shots (including five of six from three-point range) for a career-high 21 points, to lead the 29-4 Hoyas to a 69-61 victory in front of 19,508 at the Brendan Byrne Arena.
Duke stayed in the running for its third Final Four bid in four years with an 87-70 semifinal victory over Minnesota.
Smith, playing with a fever that had kept him out of practice for two days, was ineffective, scoring only one point, but Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano hadn`t counted on either Bryant or Jaren Jackson, who had 17 points (including three three-pointers). Smith, who scored 34 points in Sunday`s victory over Notre Dame, averaged 19.
”We hoped the other guys wouldn`t be able to beat us,” Valvano said.
”Tonight Bryant was terrific, Jackson was terrific, they all made key three-point shots, both in the first and the second half.”
Bryant, a 6-foot-2-inch junior who averaged 7.2 points a game before Friday, torched the Wolfpack with long-range bombs, including a three-pointer with 1:03 to play that put the Hoyas up 62-56. That came after N.C. State`s Chris Corchiani was called for travelling, negating a layup that would have brought the Wolfpack to within a point.
”When I hit my first shot, I felt like I was on, so I kept taking the shots,” said Bryant, who hadn`t had a shooting night like that since the days when he led his New Orleans high school to a state title.
”We thought it was good that they were trying to stop Charles today,”
Georgetown coach John Thompson said. ”At one point I told the assistants,
`Let`s take Smitty out of the game.` And coach (Mike) Riley looked at me and said `No, Corchiani is overplaying him and he helps too much on Alonzo, so leave Smitty out there.` He says Smitty`s not doing anything because he`s sick, but if we take Smitty out of the game, Corchiani`s going to snap back into the post.
”So in one sense it helped us that they were overplaying a guy who wasn`t contributing anyway because of his health.”
”The best thing that could have happened was if Charles had been quite healthy and played an excellent game,” said Jackson. ”But all the other players on this team are capable too.”
Mourning, the 6-10 super freshman, was his usual self, chipping in with 12 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and a pair of free throws with 29 seconds left that finally sent the 22-9 Wolfpack packing.
The Hoyas blew an early 12-point lead, and N.C. State closed to within 28-26 with 4:29 left in the first half. But Georgetown scored the last 12 points of the first half to open up a 42-28 edge.
Georgetown built that lead to 44-28 in the opening seconds of the second half as N.C. State`s scoring drought stretched to 5:27. But Wolfpack guard Rodney Monroe found the range for 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, and the Wolfpack roared back.
The sophomore led a charge that had the Wolfpack to within 59-56 with 3:02 left.
But after Corchiani was called for travelling, the Hoyas ran down the shot clock and Bryant broke the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season champions` hearts with a three-pointer.
