NC State tops Spartans behind Miller's threes
Miller hits five from long range as Wolfpack win over San Jose State

Box Score

RALEIGH, N.C. - After missing his first four three-point shots in Wednesday night's season opener against Prairie View A&M, NC State guard Archie Miller wondered if he had entered the twilight zone. After all, it had been quite some time since the 5' 10" sharpshooter had clanked four straight open looks off the rim.

But on Thursday night against San Jose State in the second round of the Black Coaches Association Invitational, Miller came back with a vengeance, hitting his first three right out of the gate. Miller's early outburst at the Entertainment and Sports Arena, along with the Wolfpack's overall offensive execution, sent NC State on its way to a 78-56 win over the Spartans.

The victory moved the Pack into Friday night's championship game against East Carolina at 8 p.m. The Pirates defeated Northwestern 71-68.

"For the most part I stayed in the flow of the game tonight," said Miller, who finished with 17 points on a 6-for-8 shooting touch. "Last night I was a little bit fidgety wanting to get off to a good start. You just have to let the game come to you and if it's your night, it's your night. A lot of the guys on our team are finding that out. Tonight I had a pretty good night and my teammates did a good job of finding me."

Just about all of the players who saw action for the Pack on Thursday did a good job of finding each other: NC State finished with 19 assists as a team and only eight turnovers.

"I thought our execution at the beginning of the first half was as good as it's been, although it hasn't been a long season yet," said Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek. "We shot 55 percent and we only had eight turnovers. I like the fact that we had 19 assists to only eight turnovers. We'll take that on most nights."

Miller wasn't the only player throwing in bombs from the arc. Sophomore guard Scooter Sherrill provided some instant offense off the bench, scoring 10 points in only 17 minutes. During one stretch of the second half, Sherrill scored eight consecutive points on a pair of threes and a two pointer to put the game well out of reach.

"Last night I thought Julius (Hodge) gave us a great spurt, tonight it was Scooter," Sendek said. "Scooter hit two threes there at crunch time when they were just hanging around enough."

After grabbing a 34-22 lead at the half, NC State watched Moises Alevarez nail a pair of threes to pull San Jose State within eight points early in the second half. But that was as close as the Spartans would get. The Wolfpack would snuff out the attempted rally by scoring seven consecutive points of its own.

San Jose State did knock down 59 percent of its shots in the second half, and ended up making 22-of-44 for the game.

The Wolfpack got another eye opening effort from freshman big man Josh Powell, who made all five of his shots from the floor in an 11-point point performance. The 6-9 Riverdale, Georgia product also added six rebounds and four assists.

"He's going to be an unbelievable player at NC State," Miller said. "I came in with similar guys in Kenny (Inge) and Damon (Thornton), but in my opinion he's above the limit of where they were when they came in. He's got great skill and a great attitude. He's just got to learn to have that intensity all the time because the ACC is a different level. When he learns to do that he'll be one of the best big guys in the country."

Also hitting double figures for the Pack was freshman Julius Hodge, who finished with 10 points in 18 minutes.