National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
N.C. State 69, Northwestern 48
When: 7:30 PM ET, Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
Officials: # Roger Ayers, # Les Jones, # Ray Natalli
Attendance: 11459

North Carolina State 69, Northwestern 48: T.J. Warren finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and three steals to lead the host Wolfpack to victory in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge game.

Jordan Vandenberg added 12 points and five blocked shots for North Carolina State (5-2). Lennard Freeman finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Anthony Barber contributed seven points, five assists and four rebounds for the Wolfpack.

Drew Crawford returned to the Northwestern lineup after sitting out the previous game with a sore back and finished with 17 points and nine rebounds to lead the Wildcats (4-5). Northwestern leading scorer JerShon Cobb scored four points, about 11 below his average, and was 0-for-7 from the field before limping off with an apparent ankle injury with about eight minutes remaining.

Northwestern missed 14 of its first 17 field-goal attempts while falling behind 16-9 and the Wolfpack eventually stretched their lead to 31-20 at the half. Warren scored 16 points in the opening 20 minutes and Crawford had 12 to dominate the scoring.

The Wildcats made it a single-digit game for the final time on a basket by Alex Olah to start the second-half scoring, but North Carolina State followed with an 8-0 burst and Northwestern never got closer than 15 the rest of the way. The Wildcats finished with a better shooting percentage from 3-point range (27.3) than on two-pointers (23.3).

GAME NOTEBOOK: Northwestern first-year coach Chris Collins spent the previous 13 seasons working as an assistant about 25 miles from North Carolina State at Duke, where he also played from 1992-96. … Warren was coming off back-to-back 30-point games, becoming the first North Carolina State player to accomplish that feat since Rodney Monroe in 1991. … North Carolina State finished with five turnovers after averaging 10.2 coming into the game.
Top Game Performances
 
Northwestern   N.C. State
Drew Crawford 17 Scoring T.J. Warren 22
JerShon Cobb 2 Assists Tyler Lewis 7
Drew Crawford 9 Rebounds Lennard Freeman 10
Drew Crawford 5 Free Throws Made T.J. Warren 6
James Montgomery III 1 Steals T.J. Warren 3
N/A Blocks Jordan Vandenberg 5
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Northwestern 48 25.0 6-22 16-18 6 31 0 3 11
N.C. State 69 45.9 4-18 9-11 16 39 7 5 5