2012 N.C.A.A. Tournament - N.C. State Sends Georgetown to Another Early Exit COLUMBUS, Ohio - After President Obama selected North Carolina State to advance to the Round of 16, Wolfpack Coach Mark Gottfried explained the pick as simply a move to curry favor among the state's voters in the coming presidential election. But North Carolina State's 66-63 victory over Georgetown on Sunday showed that Obama might have been relying on more than political guile when he made such a bold prediction about a team that nearly missed out on making the N.C.A.A. tournament. By winning six out of their last seven games, the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (24-12) are on their way to St. Louis to play in the Round of 16 for the first time since 2005. They will face the winner between No. 2 Kansas and No. 10 Purdue in a Midwest Region match-up. C. J. Leslie, C. J. Williams and Scott Wood all scored 14 points to lead North Carolina State and send the third-seeded Hoyas to another premature tournament exit. Georgetown (24-9) has not made it beyond the Round of 32 since 2007, when it reached the Final Four. The Hoyas were also upset by double-digit seeds in 2011, 2010 and in 2008. Georgetown's Jason Clark missed a 3-pointer as time expired after Lorenzo Brown hit the first of two free throws to give the Wolfpack a 3-point edge in a tense game. Georgetown had to play without the foul-troubled center Henry Sims, who deftly facilitates the Hoyas" Princeton offense from the paint, for more of the afternoon than Coach John Thompson III would have liked. Sims scored 4 points. Hollis Thompson led the Hoyas with 23 points and made 8 of 15 field-goal attempts. North Carolina State hit 46.7 percent of its 3-point attempts and played with a verve and confidence it has displayed down the stretch of its season. The Wolfpack won four of five games entering the tournament, which helped them get into the bracket. To start off Sunday, North Carolina State made only two of its first nine field-goal attempts, largely because of the Hoyas" sticky defense. But the Hoyas" offense slowed when Sims went to the bench after he picked up his second foul about six minutes in. Georgetown saw its 10-point lead turn into a 30-27 deficit by halftime. The first half was choppy because of 19 foul calls. North Carolina State's lead would have been larger if it had done a better at the free-throw line, where it was 7 of 14. Opting to play without Sims the rest of the half, Thompson used a lineup of four freshmen and Clark, a senior guard. Georgetown expanded its lead without Sims, but it quickly vanished as the Wolfpack built momentum. North Carolina State made a 15-2 run to pull ahead by halftime. The Wolfpack relied on the frontcourt duo of Leslie and Richard Howell, who combined for 13 points and 9 rebounds, to set the tone offensively in the first half. North Carolina State had a 40-32 lead when Sims picked up his third foul with 14 minutes 35 seconds to play. He went to the bench for less than two minutes before he returned. Sims picked up his fourth foul with 7:56 left. With or without Sims, Georgetown, with its version of the Princeton offense, was not built to stage comebacks. But Thompson hit a 3-pointer and then dunked off of a nice pick-and-roll with Sims to cut the Wolfpack's lead to 45-41 with 11:29 to play. The teams traded baskets and foul shots down the stretch in a gripping finish that was fitting for the Wolfpack, who narrowly made the field of 68. But now they are on to the Round of 16, which is something that only Obama and a few others projected.