Box Score

GREENSBORO, N.C. – After leading for the entire first half, the Elon men’s basketball team could not withstand a strong second-half surge by the NC State Wolfpack, falling 87-72 in non-conference action at the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday night. The Pack (10-4) had five players in double figures and shot 62.5 percent on the night to ward off the pesky Phoenix (6-8).

“We played well in the first half and were competitively tough for 20 minutes,” Elon head coach Matt Matheny said. “I didn’t think we played well in the second half. We have gotten to a point in our program that we expect more. We want to win games like these, but we need to improve. We will pull positives from playing a very difficult schedule, but we need to get better.”

Elon’s Chris Long tallied a game-high 20 points that included a 9-of-9 performance from the free throw line. The senior also had five assists — he is averaging 7.3 apg over the last three contests. Drew Spradlin added 12 points and rookie Jack Isenbarger scored in double figures for the 10th time this season with 10 points. State’s C.J. Leslie was nearly perfect from the floor on 7-of-8 shooting for a team-best 19 points and was one board away from a double-double.

The Phoenix got off to a quick start, frustrating NC State into ball-handling errors and jumping out to an 8-1 advantage. The Pack didn’t score its first bucket until the 16:49 mark and then made a quick run to tie the game at 10 with Lorenzo Brown’s fast break dunk off an Elon turnover with five minutes gone by in the contest.

Elon responded, confidently draining five of its first eight three-point attempts and using a 16-6 stretch to take a 10-point lead, 26-16, with 11:16 remaining in the opening stanza. A scoreless drought would plague the Phoenix over the next five minutes and the visitors scored nine unanswered to trim the advantage to one, 26-25, with 6:04 before the break.

A Roger Dugas long ball at the 5:40 mark finally got the Phoenix back on the board and a Scott Grable 15-footer pushed the lead back to 35-29 with less than three minutes to play before the half. A four-point Phoenix possession ensued after State personal and technical fouls put Long at the stripe for four shots. The guard boosted the Elon lead to 39-29.

Six straight points by the Wolfpack made it a four-point game with just over a minute remaining and Elon would head to the locker room with a 41-37 advantage.

Elon outworked the Pack on the glass in the first half, holding an 18-14 rebounding edge. The Phoenix was 6-of-12 from downtown and hit all 11 free throw attempts. NC State also struggled from the line, managing only 9-of-18 in the first 20 minutes of play.

State stepped up its defensive pressure in the final period and Leslie capped a 9-3 run with a dunk that brought the Pack contingency to its feet for the team’s first lead of the night at 46-44 with 17:50 on the clock.

Elon pulled to within one on three occasions, but went cold from the floor for four minutes as NC State pushed its lead to 69-58 with 7:18 to go. Spradlin knocked in a trey to halt the run, but the Wolfpack’s Tracy Smith converted an old-fashioned three-point play to keep the lead in double figures.

Down 74-61 at the 6:22 mark, Long scored four straight, turning a steal into points and putting Elon within nine. Smith missed two foul shots on the next Pack possession, but a Brown put-back off the offensive board kept momentum from swinging the Phoenix’s way. Elon would claw within eight, but could get no closer against the Atlantic Coast Conference foe.

NC State shot 16-of-25 from the field in the second half and outgained Elon on the glass. State’s 15-of-18 second-half performance from the stripe was also critical in changing the game. Elon was held to 8-of-27 shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Elon will get into the heart of Southern Conference play when it hosts the Samford Bulldogs in Alumni Gym on Saturday, January 8 at 2 p.m.