Game #6 - North Carolina State v. George Mason from Charleston, SC - Nov. 19, 2010

Game - North Carolina State v. George Mason from Charleston, SC - Friday, November 19, 2010

Line - NC State -3

Result - NC State wins 78-65 and covers.

When The Team You Are Helping Is Playing Aggressive Defense, Swallow Your Whistle

With NC State as a 3-point favorite, the game stayed near that mark for the first 15 minutes of the game. However, when George Mason had a 3-point lead at 28-25, NC State began a run of play uninterrupted by any calls against the Wolfpack, their aggressive D creating turnovers and their team scoring in transition to change a 3-point deficit into a 10-point lead, covering the spread.

After a brief George Mason run to begin the second half reduced the NC State lead to 3, exactly on the spread line, the game was a back-and-forth affair of great basketball.

Swallow Your Whistle When Things Are Going Your Way

It was also uninterrupted as NC State went on a 12-0 run to take a 10-point lead with 6 minutes to go. Apparent hand-checks on NC State went ignored, and the clearly more athletic team, the NC State Wolf Pack, were able to build a lead during this period. The only two fouls called during this period was on George Mason, of course.

NC State continued to just extend that lead with no fouls called on them, and by the 4-minute mark, the Wolfpack were in control of the game, if not the spread, and enjoying a 15-point lead.

There wasn't a single foul called on NC State from 13 minutes to play until 30 seconds to play, an unbelievable 12 1/2-minute foul-free period which included their entire end-of-game run. Naturally, the Wolfpack were able to turn a tie game with 10 minutes to play into a blowout that covered the 3-point spread, 78-65.

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