McCauley leads Pack over New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — When N.C. State gets in trouble, the ball still goes inside.

Facing a seven-point, first-half deficit against New Orleans in its opener Saturday night, the Wolfpack pounded the ball down on the block to senior center Ben McCauley.

His passing revived a stagnant offense as N.C. State bounced back to win 65-59 on the road at Lakefront Arena.

Three late first-half possessions that originated with McCauley ended in consecutive 3-pointers by Brandon Costner and a vicious, one-handed dunk by Courtney Fells.

Hustling down the floor after a New Orleans miss, McCauley tied the game at 31-31 with a fast-break layup with two seconds remaining in the first half. McCauley finished the game with 17 points and nine rebounds.

Costner, McCauley's partner in the frontcourt, led N.C. State with 19 points. It was the type of performance the Wolfpack hoped they would get from their veteran big men after the departure of 2007-08 scoring leader J.J. Hickson, who left for the NBA draft after one season.

In the second half, reserve center Tracy Smith got into the act with five consecutive N.C. State points as the Wolfpack grabbed a lead and widened it. Fells, who was moved from shooting guard to small forward in the offseason to take advantage of his athletic ability, added a basket on the block.

The Wolfpack led 48-38 with 10:30 remaining and survived a late defensive lapse because New Orleans couldn't stop the N.C. State post players.

N.C. State prevented the school-worst tying, nine-game losing streak with which it concluded last season from stretching to 10.

New Orleans, which upset N.C. State 65-63 last season in Raleigh on Tim Worley's unlikely 3-point bank shot, came into the game with plenty of reason to be emotional.

The Privateers were re-opening Lakefront Arena three years after Hurricane Katrina tore the roof off the building and water damage turned the blue seats various shades of green and yellow.

N.C. State at first had little success after banging it inside to Costner and McCauley against the smaller Privateers. The Wolfpack missed 10 of its first 11 field goal attempts, and frustrated coach Sidney Lowe called timeout with 9:08 remaining in the first half and N.C. State trailing 17-10.

One of N.C. State's biggest concerns coming into this game was the fact that New Orleans had nine newcomers and hadn't played a public exhibition game.

As a result, the Wolfpack staff could only guess what to expect from an opponent with three returning players. Turns out that Darrian McKinstry,  junior college transfer from Fullerton College in California, might have be New Orleans' best player.

He scored 17 points, handed out six assists and smothered N.C. State point guards Farnold Degand and Javi Gonzalez with his quick feet on defense.

Lowe stuck with his inside-out plan, though, and N.C. State clawed its way back behind the passing of McCauley.