Wolfpack fumbles shot to beat Gators

NCSU, which led most of the game, fails to execute at crucial moments at Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The play was drawn up for Farnold Degand to pass back to Brandon Costner for a possible winning shot for N.C. State.

But Degand thought he saw an opening and drove the lane with the Wolfpack trailing by one. He said a Florida defender whacked him on the arm as he tried to pass to Simon Harris.

The whistle never blew. The Gators gained possession with 3.1 seconds remaining, all but clinching a 68-66 defeat for N.C. State on Saturday at the O'Connell Center.

"He said he got fouled, but that's neither here nor there," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "That wasn't the play. The play, he should have pitched it back to the open guy. We didn't execute at times when we should have."

When you lose by two points, every mistake bothers you like a pebble in your shoe until you play again. When you're 9-3 and you've lost by two, three (to Marquette) and five (to Davidson), the accumulation of errors isn't easy to forget.

Florida (12-2) forced 12 second-half turnovers to win after trailing 34-23 with 19 minutes remaining. Guard Nick Calathes penetrated at will against the State defense, scoring 24 of his 32 points after halftime.

Calathes also had five assists, and his scoring in the second half allowed the Gators to press and speed up the pace after N.C. State dominated the first half with a slow tempo and the inside- outside scoring of Costner.

"We shouldn't let one guy beat us like that," Costner said of Calathes.

The Gators scored 16 second-half points off turnovers to win even though N.C. State shot 58.5 percent from the field. On some of the turnovers, Lowe said, the Wolfpack players were content to dribble when teammates were wide open under the basket.

N.C. State committed the cardinal sin of failing to box out the free-throw shooter early in the second half, allowing Calathes to hustle for a rebound and a layup that never should have happened. With 52 seconds remaining, Lowe wanted somebody to draw a charge to stop a Calathes backdoor cut.

Nobody did, and Calathes made a reverse layup.

Costner scored the last of his 24 points when Alex Tyus goaltended a shot in the lane with 28 seconds remaining for a 66-65 Wolfpack lead. But Calathes rolled in a go-ahead, one-handed floater in the lane with 11.3 seconds remaining, and Degand turned it over on the next possession.

"This is the third game in a row where we demonstrated that we can beat these teams," Degand said after scoring a season-high 10 points. "It's hard when you do it for the third time in a row. It gets to the point where you have to start winning these games. It's not about you could. You've got to win them."