GREENSBORO — N.C. State couldn't buy a free throw. Elon couldn't miss a 3-pointer.

That combination left the Wolfpack in a 10-point hole twice in the first half of Wednesday's game at the Greensboro Coliseum. Just when N.C. State's dress rehearsal for the ACC tournament was about to turn into a disaster, Tracy Smith and Scott Wood made sure the Wolfpack left the Coliseum with a 87-72 win.

Smith scored 15 points, all but four in the second half, and Wood found the range for 13 points, 11 in the second half, to put away the determined Phoenix (6-8).

While many of the rest of us were keeping to air-conditioned spaces, more than 800 athletes age 50 to 80-plus were braving the heat and humidity over the past week to compete in the Senior Softball-USA Eastern National Championships at the Walnut Creek Softball Complex in Raleigh.

Fifty-six teams of 15 players each from east of the Mississippi River competed in 15 divisions and earned the opportunity to compete in the Oct. 15-24 World Championships in Phoenix, said Senior Softball CEO Terry Hennessy of Sacramento, Calif., who was in Raleigh helping conduct the event.

North Carolina was represented by two of the nine women's teams and 11 of the 47 men's teams in age groups ranging from Women's 40 to Men's 80. The Carolina Cardinals of Apex won the Men's 70 Silver title in a showdown of N.C. teams, defeating the Burlington 70s 20-11, and the Carolina Cobras of Chapel Hill finished second in the Men's 55 AAA Division, losing 21-8 to Eagle Tile of Stevensville, Md., in the event's final game Sunday evening. Code Electric of Wake Forest finished fourth in the Men's 60 AAA.