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RALEIGH — Holy Cross coach Sean Kearney watched N.C. State's last game on TV, and his heart sank when Florida's Chandler Parsons hit a 70-footer at the overtime buzzer.

"As I saw that shot go in Sunday afternoon," Kearney recalled, "I turned to my wife and said, 'That's not very good for us.' I knew they would be focused and ready for us."

Tracy Smith scored 19 points and Dennis Horner had 16 of his 18 in the decisive second half as N.C. State exorcised the ghost of Parsons' prayer with an 87-70 victory over Holy Cross at the RBC Center on Wednesday.

It was a victory the Wolfpack (11-4) needed badly, Horner said, after the three long days following Sunday's loss to Florida.

"Those days were tough," Horner said, "because you go out there and play as hard as we did as a team and then for that to happen, it's just a bummer. We had to come back as a team and get a win. We had to."

Julius Mays scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half for the Wolfpack, and Farnold Degand finished with 12 points and nine assists.

Mays, too, said the Florida loss — and Parsons' impossible shot — was on the N.C. State players' minds right up until game time against Holy Cross (3-12).

"I think we were all still trying to figure out how that guy hit that shot," Mays said. "We all came in before this game and tried to make that shot, and only Scott Wood and C.J. (Williams) made it after about a million tries.

"We all tried shooting it," Mays added. "We all wanted to figure out: How did this guy hit that shot? Especially the way he hit it: Two dribbles and then he just chucked it up. He's not a very strong guy, so we were just all wondering: How did he hit it? We all went out there and tried to do it, and only two of us did it."

Wood might've hit the shot before the game, but he shot just 2-for-8 from 3-point range and scored 10 points against Holy Cross. He was 1-for-6 in the first half, when the Wolfpack shot just 3-for-12 from behind the arc against the Crusaders' two-three zone defense and scratched out a 33-31 halftime lead.

"I thought we had a good practice (after the Florida loss)," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "They guys were upbeat. I guess there was a little carryover judging by how we played in the first half. I told our guys, 'Good teams bounce back from tough losses and take it out on the next opponent.'"

N.C. State did that in the second half. Horner scored two layups, grabbed two rebounds and blocked two shots during a 16-3 scoring run to start the half.

"With our defense we were getting fast-break opportunities before they could set up their zone," Horner said.

Wood and Javier Gonzalez both hit 3-pointers during the decisive run, and N.C. State shot 7-for-11 from long range after halftime.

After the big run, the Wolfpack led by at least seven points the rest of the way as its defense finished off Holy Cross. N.C. State forced 17 turnovers, blocked 11 shots and made 11 steals.

"I know that it's kind of been their M.O. this year to shoot it better in the second half," Kearney said. "Certainly they've scored it better in the second half, so we expected a heck of a run out of them."

Devin Brown scored 21 points off the bench to lead Holy Cross. He scored most of his points on four long-range jumpers.

But nothing like the 70-footer N.C. State sought to forget Wednesday night.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

HOLY CROSS (3-12) — Cavataio 3-9 5-6 11, Evans 5-14 2-5 13, Beinert 3-6 2-2 11, Keister 2-8 0-0 4, Meister 1-3 0-0 2, Goens 0-3 0-0 0, Brown 5-9 7-9 21, May 1-2 2-2 5, Stevens 1-3 0-0 3, Obeysekere 0-0 0-0 0, Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Beans 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-57 18-24 70.

N.C. STATE (11-4) — Gonzalez 2-3 0-0 5, Wood 4-12 0-0 10, Williams 0-3 0-0 0, T.Smith 5-9 9-10 19, Horner 8-12 0-0 18, Howell 2-3 0-0 4, Degand 5-9 0-0 12, Vandenberg 1-1 0-0 2, Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Mays 5-8 2-2 15, K.Smith 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-64 11-12 87.

Halftime—N.C. State 33-31.
3-point goals—Holy Cross 10-17 (Brown 4-6, Beinert 3-5, Evans 1-1, May 1-2, Stevens 1-3), N.C. State 10-23 (Mays 3-6, Degand 2-3, Horner 2-4, Wood 2-8, Gonzalez 1-1, Williams 0-1). Fouled out—None.
Rebounds—Holy Cross 37 (Cavataio 9), N.C. State 34 (Howell 7).
Assists—Holy Cross 15 (Keister 6), N.C. State 20 (Degand 9).
Total fouls—Holy Cross 12, N.C. State 19.
A—10,205.