Marquette's James leaves impression

The guy who broke N.C. State’s heart on Monday night had some kind words for the team he’d just defeated on a winning 3-point shot with four-tenths of a second remaining at the RBC Center.
Point guard Dominic James, whose basket gave Marquette a 68-65 victory, was impressed with N.C. State’s post players and the way coach Sidney Lowe gets them the ball.
“They’ve got a great coach,” James said. “He’s great at (isolating) his players.”
Monday night was a rare occasion when those isolation plays didn’t work out for center Ben McCauley. He missed two free throws with 79 seconds remaining and lost the ball during the final minute when he was double-teamed by James and Dwight Burke.
Lowe said he was disappointed N.C. State didn’t do a better job of passing out of the double teams, which usually is one of McCauley’s strengths.
“We needed to kick it back out after catching the ball,” Lowe said. “We kept trying to go one-on-one. We didn’t play as smart as we normally do and that’s why we lost the game.”
James exchanged good-natured greetings with forward Brandon Costner as he left the arena after Costner scored a game-high 24 points for the Wolfpack. And when James was done speaking with the media, he spotted N.C. State freshman point guard Julius Mays and gave him a big hug.
They had played against each other in high school in Indiana.
“I told him before the game, I was impressed with the way he came out and ran their team,” James said.
After James scored nine of his 18 points during the final four minutes, N.C. State was impressed with him, too.
“He made plays a senior of his caliber would,” Lowe said. Ken Tysiac