Day one is officially in the books, and March Madness is underway.
The ACC tournament, which is currently in DC and not the usual home of Greensboro, NC, was lacking in attendance, but the fire from the teams were evident. First up was NC State verses Wake Forest, two very familiar teams with deep history.
This won’t start off like normal, it wasn’t Cat Barber who’s the talk of NC State’s tough win, but Freshman, Maverick Rowan. Rowan’s name hasn’t been mentioned much due to soreness in his foot and limited practice, but that doesn’t mean Coach Gottfried lost confidence in him, and as you can tell, Rowan was the savior Tuesday Afternoon.
These two teams are no strangers, both North Carolina schools play each other at least twice a year. During the 2015-2016 season, the two schools split the wins on their own home court. Freshmen, Maverick Rowan, seized the court giving NC State the edge to conquer Wake Forest in a tough battle. With a back and forth game, State just couldn’t seem to put away a relentless Wake Forest. Under the leadership of Rowan in the second half, State went on a 15-4 run, finally confirming the match-up with Duke on Wednesday.
“I think he’s had a really good freshman year and we forget sometimes he is a freshman,” Gottfried said of Rowan.
“And he’s only going to get better,”.
Usually we are accustomed to Barber leading this team to victory, but Rowan decided to take the reins finishing with 24,4 and shooting 6-13 behind the arc. Those threes came in handy late in the second half around the 3:50 mark with three consecutive three-point baskets. With fouls adding up, Wake Forest couldn’t pull off the upset, and unfortunately lost, 75-72.
NC State gears up to face Duke, Wednesday at 2:30pm.
Boston College hasn’t fared too well in the ACC. They set precedent today after finishing the ACC division, 0-19, with the last loss being tonight against the Florida State Seminoles. In the first half it seemed that Boston College would fair well and be able to compete with FSU, but with rosters full of freshmen, they just couldn’t keep up. With guard, Eli Carter leading BC in points, 21, there wasn’t much he could do to help his team with a victory; FSU was too tough.
”It’s been real difficult losing, obviously, setting history and all that stuff, but guys just kept playing. As much talk as is out there, we didn’t really pay too much attention to it. We just kept kind of playing.” Carter said
Boston College only lead twice early in the first half then FSU proceeded to make the game theirs. During the second half, FSU leaped with a 6-0 run, and never looked back. Devon Bookert’s 15 points with the help of Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley, who both finished the game evenly with 13pts, succeeded in leading the Seminoles to appear in the second round against Virginia Tech on Wednesday.
