>GREENSBORO, N.C. - It was not the way Erick Green wanted to end his Virginia Tech career.

Green, the ACC player of the year and the nation's leading scorer, had one of his worst outings of the season as the Hokies fell to North Carolina State 80-63 on Thursday in the first round of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The senior point guard had almost as many turnovers (four) as baskets (five). He was just 5 of 19 from the field and was held to 15 points, 10 below his average.

"I wanted to win this thing," Green said of the tournament. "I wanted to make a run and shock the world.

"It sucks the way I played. I didn't want to end like that."

The 12th-seeded Hokies (13-19) trailed the entire second half.

Green had his third-worst field-goal percentage (26.3 percent) of the season. He had his second-lowest point total of the season. His 14 misses from the field tied his season high. It was only the fourth time this year he was held to five baskets or less.

"I'm kind of upset with the way we lost and the way I played," Green said. "I didn't put the ball in the basket like I should've."

Green, whose average dipped from 25.4 points entering the game to 25.0 points, is still a lock to finish the season as the nation's scoring leader. He scored a school-record 801 points this season and wound up 10th on the career list with 1,742 points.

"I had a great career and I had a great senior year," he said. "I'm not going to let one game just put me down in the slumps."

Green said it was emotional for him as he walked off the court.

"I had tears in my eyes, just looking at my parents," he said. "I'm going to miss all this. I'm going to miss Hokie Nation. The good thing is I get to take one of these jerseys home and put it around my bed."

Green had 29 points in an overtime loss at State last month, but Wolfpack guard Lorenzo Brown gave him plenty of trouble Thursday.

"Lorenzo was terrific, just in his one-on-one defense with Green," State coach Mark Gottfried said. "We did a much better job of helping him when he needed help."

Brown got help from 6-foot-9 forward C.J. Leslie and 6-8 forward T.J. Warren.

"They did a good job, the whole defense. They were in the gaps. They doubled me off the picks," Green said. "It was something I haven't seen.

"I didn't think I was going to get doubled like I did, and [State trying] to get the ball out of my hands like they did. Usually the bigs don't hedge out as long as they did. They trapped me.

"Leslie, he's out there [with] long arms, I couldn't really see over him."

Green usually gets a number of points from the free-throw line, but he was just 2 of 2 from the line Thursday. The entire team attempted only 11 free throws.

"Everybody was in the gaps when I penetrated," Green said. "Even in transition I was seeing two, three people back there, just waiting for me."

It was only the fourth time this season that Green scored fewer than 21 points.

Green said his right knee has been "killing" him but that it was not the reason for his poor outing. He has had throbbing, "annoying" knee pain in the second half of the season because of a condition called Osgood-Schlatter Disease.

Trailing 25-24, the fifth-seeded Wolfpack (23-9) went on a 10-2 run to grab a 34-27 lead with 3:20 left in the first half. State led the rest of the way. State scored three baskets off Tech turnovers in that span, with Green committing two of those turnovers.

"That was one of the things we talked about, not letting them get out in transition," Tech coach James Johnson said. "Those turnovers led to transition baskets."

Tech cut the lead to 48-42 with 14:51 to go, but State answered with an 11-0 run.

State shot 52.8 percent from the field. The Wolfpack had 14 fast-break points.

All-ACC first-team pick Richard Howell had 22 points and 12 rebounds for State. He was 11 of 13 from the field.

"We had no answer for him," Johnson said.

The Hokies outrebounded the Wolfpack in the first meeting but were outrebounded 40-25 in the rematch.

"They killed us on the glass," Green said.

Jarell Eddie had 21 points for Tech.

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