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March 10, 2000
POSTGAME AUDIO
NCSU:Anthony Grundy | Ron Kelley |Archie Miller
UVa:Donald Hand | Keith Friel
By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Damien Wilkins scored 17 points, and Ron Kelley andKenny Inge added 16 each as North Carolina State’s frontcourt was too much forVirginia in a 76-65 victory in the ACC tournament Friday night.
The sixth-seeded Wolfpack (17-11), which shot a season-high 61 percent inthe quarterfinal win, will now take on Maryland in one Atlantic CoastConference semifinal Saturday.
Coach Herb Sendek has won at least one ACC tourney game in each of his firstfour seasons at the Raleigh school.
Justin Gainey also was huge in the backcourt for the Wolfpack, scoring 12points and making a tourney record nine steals. Four players held the previousmark of seven.
The Cavaliers (19-11) lost their sixth straight ACC tourney game and willhave to wait until either the NCAA or NIT tournaments to attempt to win 20 forthe first time since the 1994-95 season.
Chris Williams led Virginia with 13 points, while Donald Hand, the team’ssecond-leading scorer at 15 a game, was saddled with foul trouble most of thegame and finished with eight.
Virginia used a 12-2 run to erase a nine-point halftime deficit, but couldhold the lead for only two possessions as Hand picked up his fourth foulminutes later and the Wolfpack went on a game-clinching run of its own.
Gainey’s 3-pointer started the 11-2 spurt and Kelley added a layup as N.C.State went up 59-48 with 8:21 left.
The Wolfpack still led by 11 with less than four minutes remaining asVirginia mounted a late charge, pulling to 69-65 with 48.3 seconds left, butthere would be no second-half collapse for N.C. State this time.
Anthony Grundy and Inge made two free throws to seal it in the finalseconds.
Virginia, coming off an overtime win against No. 20 Maryland, started icecold, going 4-for-18 to fall behind by as many as 14 points in the opening 9 1/2minutes.
The third-seeded Cavaliers had particular problems from the outside, missingtheir first eight 3-pointers before finishing the half 1-for-11.
However, the Wolfpack kept Virginia in it with 12 first-half turnoversbefore settling for a nine-point halftime lead.
Gainey matched a career-high with six steals in the first-half alone as theCavaliers had trouble with the Wolfpack’s defensive pressure.