Beverly’s toughness leads Wolfpack back court

Sports

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 11 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018

Beverly’s toughness leads Wolfpack back court

Andrew Schnittker

Sports Editor

With 2:47 left in the NC State men’s basketball team’s 96-85 upset win over the then No. 2 Duke Blue Devils at PNC Arena Saturday, freshman point guard Braxton Beverly pulled up and nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key, putting the Pack up 82-76 and sending the sellout crowd into a frenzy. Beverly made his mark on a moment Pack fans will remember forever, and etched his own name into NC State history.

Turn the clock back to the day before, and Beverly is spending the team’s postpractice media availability reflecting on what’s already been a whirlwind season for the first-year transfer out of Ohio State three games into ACC play. Beverly admitted that, earlier in the season, when the NCAA was still debating his eligibility and he was sitting on the bench, he couldn’t have imagined a moment like the one against Duke, or any that came before it.

“I didn’t,” Beverly said. “It’s crazy how things work out. But I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I’m glad I’m out here and able to help out my team, help out my brothers and get some wins.”

There’s a chance Beverly could have never taken the floor for NC State this season. His original plan was to play college basketball at Ohio State University. However, after the Buckeyes fired head coach Thad Matta, Beverly decided he wanted to play elsewhere, and transferred to NC State to play under head coach Kevin Keatts, who coached at Hargrave Military Academy where Beverly had spent the previous two years.

Things weren’t as simple as the Hazard, Kentucky, native swapping one red jersey for another, however. Beverly took summer classes while at Ohio State before Matta was fired. The NCAA initially ruled that he was ineligible because of this, and ruled that he had to sit out a year. Of course, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t Beverly’s fault his coach was fired, and he had just tried to get a jump on his education. However, the NCAA has more than once in the past not been interested in playing fair, and it seemed Beverly would be another victim.

However, hours before a game against Bryant University on Nov. 14, the NCAA cleared Beverly. He played that night, putting up two points, two rebounds and an assist in 16 minutes. Facing down the prospect of a year away from the game he loved has given Beverly an even greater appreciation for the opportunity in front of him.

“It makes you really not take it for granted,” Beverly said. “Not even that, even with that, I would have been able to play last year. Just, even say you get hurt, it’s taken away from you. Just make sure you can’t take it for granted. You’ve got to enjoy every second that you get with it.”

It was certainly difficult at times for Beverly to see the light at the end of the tunnel during the drawn out NCAA saga, but he had a strong support system in place to help him stay focused and positive.

“I give a lot of credit to my coaches, my family and my teammates here,” Beverly said. “There was times it just kind of got tiring. You want to play. I wanted to play and it was just kind of hurting that I had to sit out. The way that my teammates stayed positive for me, my coaches, my family. It was hard at times, but they all just stayed positive. However it works out, it will work out. They just kept me informed that they were going to have my back no matter what.”

The payoff for staying with it has been worth it for Beverly. The team eased him in to start the year, but that was no longer an

NICK FAULKNER/TECHNICIAN Freshman guard Braxton Beverly breaks around Duke’s Grayson Allen. Beverly dished out five assists to go along with 14 points during the 96-85 win over No. 2 Duke in PNC Arena Saturday.

Sports PAGE 12 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018 TECHNICIAN Men’s Basketball to host Tigers

PACK FACES SECOND STRAIGHT RANKED OPPONENT

Robert Brooks

Correspondent

Coming off its 11-point victory over the Duke Blue Devils (and second win against the second-ranked team in the country), the NC State men’s basketball team hosts red-hot No. 19 Clemson at 9 p.m. at PNC Arena Thursday night.

Clemson (14-1 overall and 3-0 in the ACC) has won 10 games in a row and stands half a game behind the Virginia Cavaliers for first place in the ACC. The Tigers are coming off a narrow 74-69 overtime home victory over the Louisville Cardinals. Redshirt junior Marcquise Reed led all scorers with 24 points and willed his Tigers to their 10th-straight victory.

Reed’s performance against Louisville marked his fourth 20-point game of the season as he continues to be the Tigers’ best scorer at 15.9 points per game. Junior forward Elijah Thomas accounted for his fifth double-double of the season, and senior forward Donte Grantham had double-digit rebounds for the fifth time this season.

The strength of the Tigers comes from the balance their starters provide. Each starter averages over 11 points per game, including the big man Thomas who nearly averages a double-double at 11.6 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Reed remains their go-to scorer when they need him, averaging a team-best 39.7 percent from three and 84.3 from the free-throw line. The Tigers’ balanced attacks is complimented by a top-25 ranked scoring defense, and the combination has led them to one of the best starts in school history.

For the first time in program history, NC State has beaten two teams ranked No. 2 or higher in the regular season. The scene against Duke was a familiar sight for Wolfpack fans; when the Blue Devils entered PNC Arena on Jan. 15, 2015, they were handed an 87-75 defeat.

Duke started off well, controlling the first portion of the game. NC State hung around, and eventually took the lead with 7:29 left after a 12-point run that was emphasized with a clutch 3-pointer from graduate guard Sam Hunt. The rest of the seven minutes was back-and-forth, until sophomore center Omer Yurtseven put an exclamation on his 10-point and sixrebound first half with a two-handed putback slam that gave the Wolfpack a 43-41 lead at the half.

The Wolfpack managed to hold off the Blue Devils the entire second half, despite Duke’s best attempts to go on a devastating run. Redshirt junior Torin Dorn led the Wolfpack early in the second, and ended up with 12 points in the half and 16 total. Clutch 3-point and free-throw shooting late in the game cemented the Wolfpack’s lead and had PNC jumping. Dorn hit a big three at the 2:02 mark, and freshmen guards Braxton Beverly and Lavar Batts Jr. added two free throws each within those two minutes to put the Blue Devils away.

The Wolfpack only committed 10 turnovers compared to the Blue Devils’ 16, a margin that will need to happen again in order to have success against the veteran Clemson lineup. Yurtseven finished with 16 points and nine rebounds while senior Abdul-Malik Abu added 10 points and two rebounds. The two big men will look to capitalize on that performance in order to compete against Clemson’s dynamic forwards in Thomas and Grantham.

The key matchup of the Thursday night showdown is the Wolfpack’s senior guard Allerik Freeman versus Clemson’s Reed. Freeman is averaging 15.3 points per game compared to Reed’s 15.9, and both of the veteran guards lead their respective teams in minutes per game.

The Wolfpack’s road does not get any easier after Thursday as the team travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, to face the No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers Sunday at 6 p.m.

NICK FAULKNER/TECHNICIAN Sophomore center Omer Yurtseven slams home a huge dunk. Yurtseven put up a team-high 16 points and nine rebounds during the 9685 win over No. 2 Duke in PNC Arena Saturday.

Sports

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 13 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018

Gymnastics heads to Chapel Hill with high hopes

Kailee Jurnak

Correspondent

The NC State women’s gymnastics team will be traveling to UNC-Chapel Hill for its first EAGL competition this Friday at 7 p.m. The Wolfpack has had a strong start to the beginning of its season. The Pack competed against Illinois-Chicago and Northern Illinois for the Tri-Meet, where the team earned its first wins and a clean 2-0 record.

The team has demonstrated strong performances in all disciplines but shined in the floor routine. Four of the Pack’s members placed in the top five ranks. Senior Mackenzie Itcush, junior Alexa Phillips and sophomore Drew Grantham all scored fourth place. Senior Chelsea Knight placed first with a 9.800 score.

Knight was a large contributor to the Pack’s success, picking up four wins as her performances really helped the team have a clean start. Not only did Knight place first on the floor but also in the vault with a 9.800 score and first all-around with an overall score of 39.075. Knight’s fourth placement was on the beam at second with a 9.800 score.

There are high hopes for Knight’s continued performance of excellence based on previous years. In 2017, Knight made the All-EAGL first team for the vault, bars and all-around. She was also a qualifier for all-around in the NCAA regional championship and All-EAGL second team for the beams.

Junior Caitlyn Fillard also placed allaround at fifth with a cumulative score of 37.925 and placed fifth on the vault with a score of 9.700.

Despite the win, the Pack was only 0.5 points higher than second-place IllinoisChicago and 1.425 points above Northern Illinois.

Last season, the Wolfpack was defeated by UNC by 0.65 points. The all-around members that placed were Grantham in third and junior Paris Phillips in fifth. Knight only placed in two events, the bars with first and the vault in fourth.

But the Wolfpack had scored higher than the Tar Heels in individual events such as the floor, which was a highlight for the Pack in its recent competition.

The close loss will help to motivate the team and its performance this upcoming Friday in hopes of claiming a third win of the season and first EAGL competition to remain undefeated thus far.

SALLY TUNG / ARCHIVE Junior gymnast Chelsea Knight flips into the air, showing her flexibility and great balance at the balance beam event at Reynolds Coliseum on March 18, 2017. Knight receives 9.775 in the vault event, 9.750 in the bars event, 9.775 in the beam event and 9.875 in the floor event which she won second place in. She also won third place with her all-around results of 39.175. The Wolfpack won third place with the score of 194.875 in the meet with George Washington University, University of New Hampshire, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Pittsburgh and Towson University.

BEVERLY

continued from page 11

option after sophomore Markell Johnson, the team’s starting point guard for the first 10 games, was suspended stemming from charges of felonious assault.

It was baptism by fire for Beverly at that point, who has averaged 36 minutes per game since, including at least 33 per game in three games of ACC play. Beverly has both enjoyed that challenge and handled it well, averaging 12.6 points and six assists per game in that span despite the difficulties of starting at point guard in the best conference in college basketball.

“It’s a big difference,” Beverly said. “You’re playing against grown men out there. It’s helped me mature early and be ready a lot earlier than a lot [of players] have to be. It’s been great. I’ve got great teammates that encourage me and believe in me. Great coaches I can learn from, playing at a great school, great program. It’s all been really good.”

Two years at Hargrave Military Academy have helped prepare Beverly for the rigors of college basketball. He’s not the only one around NC State basketball who understands the value of spending time at Hargrave. Keatts spent 10 seasons as Hargrave’s head coach before coaching at Louisville and UNC-Wilmington.

He’s been impressed with what his fellow Hargrave product has offered the Wolfpack this season.

“He plays with toughness,” Keatts said. “When you see a freshman who can come in and play right away; he’s a guy who’s a little bit different than a typical freshman because he spent those couple years at Hargrave Military Academy as a senior and as a post grad. He plays with a lot of toughness for us.”

As the team’s primary point guard, Beverly’s first responsibility is setting up his teammates, particularly the team’s complement of bigs down low. One of the Pack’s longest-tenured members has liked what he’s seen from his young teammate so far.

“One thing about Braxton that I realized from the moment I stepped on the court with him is he has great vision and great passing ability,” senior forward Abdul-Malik Abu said. “Honestly you could always ask for more but these guys are young; it’s their first time playing in the ACC ever. I remember my first time; it was crazy. I’m proud of them for what they’re doing, for going out there fighting every night.”

As the season continues, Beverly, who has already experienced some high highs and low lows in his young career, has a simple goal: continue to improve in all aspects of his game to help NC State basketball on the first steps of its path under Keatts.

“I can’t really pick out one certain thing I want to work on the most, because I want to maximize every possible angle of my game to become the best player I can,” Beverly said. “I learn as I play.”

Sports

Pack headed to TYR Pro Series in Austin

Alex Sawyer

Assistant Sports Editor

A large contingent of NC State swimmers will be headed to Austin, Texas, from Thursday to Sunday to compete in the TYR Pro Series event hosted by the University of Texas.

For the Wolfpack, ranked third nationally for the men and 14th for the women, the event will be a good opportunity to get a much larger chunk of its roster in the pool for competitive swims, rather than just its top swimmers. It will also serve as a chance for NC State swimmers to get experience swimming a longcourse meters format, like at the Olympics, opposed to the NCAA short-course yards pools.

NC State is fielding swimmers in 33 of the 34 events at the meet, with the one exception being the women’s 200-meter butterfly. In a strong field scattered with former Olympians, the Pack is still persistently atop the qualifying timesheets.

Of the 34 events, NC State has at least one swimmer with a top-10 seed time in 21 of them. The Pack has multiple top10 swimmers in 10 events, and three swimmers in the top 10 in the women’s 800-meter freestyle, men’s 100-meter freestyle and the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle.

Perhaps the strongest event of the meet for NC State is the men’s 100m free. Senior Olympian Ryan Held leads the 12man contingent of Pack swimmers in the event. Held has the second-fastest qualifying time in the field, behind only five-time Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian. Held’s time is slightly over half a second behind Adrian.

Behind Held is junior Justin Ress, who comes in with the fifth-best seed time, and freshman Giovanni Izzo in eighth. Nine other Wolfpack swimmers are on the psych sheet for the race, including junior Andreas Vazaios.

Another very strong event for the Pack is the women’s 1,500m free. Senior Hannah Moore, freshman Tamila Holub and sophomore Ariel Finke all enter the meet with top-10 seed times in the event, led by Moore’s 16:08.68, good for fifth best.

Moore also fronts the Pack in the women’s 800m free. Her seed time of 8:27.58 is second to only Leah Smith, a former ACC rival at Virginia and Olympic bronze medalist. Finke and Holub again have top-10 seed times in the 800m free as well, with Finke in sixth and Holub in eighth.

In the women’s 400-meter individual medley, Moore again has a very strong qualifying time and will be seeded seventh. Moore’s other strong event is the 400-meter freestyle, where she has the fifth-fastest seed time.

Another NC State swimmer set to have a good weekend in Austin is senior Olympian Anton Ipsen. Ipsen has one of the 10 fastest seed times in four events at the meet, highlighted by his fourth-place seed in the men’s 400-meter freestyle.

While the Pack should have significant success across the board, one other event that should see NC State near the top is the men’s 50-meter backstroke. Ress, who competed for the United States at the 2017 World Championships in the event, has the third-fastest seed time and could be poised to take gold. Right behind Ress is senior Hennessey Stuart, with the seventh-best time.

NICK FAULKNER/TECHNICIAN Junior Ryan Held practices his kicking inside of the Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center on July 7, 2016, to prepare for the Olympics. “I’ve always said I want to go to the Olympics but the dream never really became tangible until about last summer at the U.S. Open when I swam a 49.1 and I was about a top-15 time in the country and then it kind of hit me like ok, actually, you know this could be a reality. I could make the Olympic team,” Held said. Held won a gold medal for the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay.

TECHNICIAN

PAGE 14 • THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2018

Football finishes at No. 23 in final AP poll

The NC State football team has been rewarded for its 9-4 season, its second most wins in program history, and 6-2 ACC mark, the team’s most conference wins since 1994. Following a dominant 52-31 win over Arizona State in the Sun Bowl, the Wolfpack finishes at No. 23 in the final AP poll of the 2017-18 season. This is NC State’s highest ranking since 2002 (No. 12), and the first time it has finished in the postseason rankings since 2010 (No. 25). SOURCE: NC STATE ATHLETICS

Evans, Davis earn ACC Field Performers of the Week nods

NC State track redshirt junior Lauren Evans and redshirt senior Joshua Davis have been named ACC Women’s and Men’s Field Performers of the Week, respectively. For Evans, this marks the first time in her career she has received the honor, while Davis picks up his second ACC Field Performer of the Week nod.

Evans won gold at the JDL College Kick-off Classic in the weight throw. Her throw of 67’ 8” is a new personal best and the secondbest throw in NC State history. Evans also finished second in the shot put. Davis also won gold in the weight throw at the JDL College Kick-off, breaking his own program record with a toss of 76’ 3”.s SOURCE: NC STATE ATHLETICS

Big weekend for No. 21 Gymnastics

The No. 21 NC State gymnastics team is on a roll as of late, especially after defeating Northern Illinois and Illinois-Chicago on Sunday. The Pack finished with a team score of 194.025, placing as the second-best squad in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League and fourth-best in the South East Region. Senior Chelsea Knight nearly posted the best all-around score in the EAGL with a score of 39.075. The Waldorf, Maryland, native’s scores of 9.800 on the floor, vault and beam which placed her second, third and fourthhighest, respectively, in the EAGL. Junior Alexa Phillips, junior Maggie Tamburro and freshman Lauren Kent all tied for third in the EAGL in their respective events. Kent and Tamburro tied in the uneven bars with scores of 9.775 while Phillips finished tied for third in the floor exercise in 9.775. SOURCE: NC STATE ATHLETICS

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