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NC State Game Notes | UNCG Game Notes
RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men’s basketball team is back in action Wednesday night when it hosts UNCG inside the Lenovo Center.
Tipoff against the Spartans is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised on the ACC Network. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Chucky Brown call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
Pack Notes
– NC State shot 69.2 percent from the field in the second half to pull away from UAB for a 94-70 win on Friday night.
– The Pack led 28-26 at the final media timeout of the first half, but outscored the Blazers 13-7 to close out the period and then broke open the game in the first five minutes of the second half, taking a 60-45 lead into the first media timeout of the final 20 minutes. UAB never got closer than 15 the rest of the way, with the Pack’s lead ballooning to as much as 31 in the final five minutes of the game.
– NC State’s Quadir Copeland and Paul McNeil, Jr., each scored 18 points to lead the Pack in scoring. Tre Holloman and Darrion Williams each added 14 points to give the Pack four players in double figures.
– Pack’s starting unit is giving NC State a lethal offensive punch through the first two games. NC State’s starting lineup (Quadir Copeland, Tre Holloman, Ven-Allen Lubin Paul McNeil., Jr., and Darrion Williams) are combining to average 71.5 point per game and shooting a ridiculously efficient 63.6 percent (49-of-77) from the field through two games this season. All five starters are shooting over 50 percent from the field so far. In the Pack’s second half blitz of UAB on Friday night, the five starters combined to shoot 14-of-18 (77.8%) from the field.
– Making the easy ones. Through two games this season, NC State ranks second in the ACC and 13th in all of NCAA DI with a field goal percentage of 56 percent, but the Pack’s percentage skyrockets when it is shooting a two-pointer. NC State is 74.5 percent (41-of-55) on two-point field goals this season. In the second half of the win over UAB on Friday night, NC State was 11-of-12 on two-point field goals.
– NC State opened the Will Wade Era in dominating fashion Monday with a 114-66 dismantling of North Carolina Central.
– In the win, the Pack tied a program record with 19 three-pointers and its 114 points were the second-most in Lenovo Center history.
– NC State ended the game 19-of-40 from three-point range. The 19 made threes ties the school record previously set on Dec. 22, 2017 in a 116-64 win over Jacksonville. The Pack had seven different players make a three and four players made at least three triples – Tre Holloman (4), Paul McNeil, Jr. (4), Darrion Williams (4) and Matt Able (3).
Wednesday storylines
– Dating back to the 2016-17 season, NC State has a 68-3 (.958) record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games. One of those three losses is to UNCG though. The Spartans won in the Lenovo Center, 81-76, on Dec. 16, 2017.
– A win on Wednesday night would give the Pack a 3-0 start for the sixth consecutive season.
– Darrion Williams is in line to start his 100th straight college game on Wednesday. The Sacramento, Calif., native did not start the first three games of his collegiate career at Nevada, but moved into the starting lineup for the fourth game of the season and has started every game he’s played in since.
– Darrion Williams, the ACC’s Preseason Player of the Year, has stuffed the stat sheet to start the season. Williams is averaging 16.5 points, 6.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game. He’s shooting 60 percent from the field, 55.6 percent from three-point range and 80 percent from the foul line. His assist-turnover ratio of 12.0 leads the ACC and ranks third in the nation.
– Second Half Pack: NC State’s offense hasn’t exactly been bad in the first half this season – The Pack has scored 95 points in the first half of the first two games this season – but NC State has gone to another level in the second half of both their games this season. So far in the second half this season, NC State has scored 113 points (56.5 second half points average per game) and is shooting 62.1 percent in the final 20 minutes, including 48.6 percent (18-of-37) from three-point range. NC State is shooting 85.7 percent (18-of-21) on two-point field goals in the second half this season.
– Freshman Musa Sagnia getting comfortable with the college game. The Gambia native has played in Spain’s professional system since he was 14, but the learning curve for the college game was still expected to be steep for him. Through two games though, Sagnia has made an impact for the Pack. He had four steals in NC State’s season-opening win over NC Central and had a team-high 10 rebounds in the win Friday over UAB. Sagnia is currently averaging team-bests in rebounds (7.0) and steals (2.5) and is shooting 100 percent (4-of-4) from the field.
– NC State’s offensive output through two games (208 points) is the most for the program since the 1990-91 season when the Pack scored 255 points in wins over Florida International and Charleston Southern. The Pack has passed out 46 assists in its two wins this season. It’s the most assists for NC State in the first two games of the season since the 2011-12 team had 47.
NC State series with UNCG
– Wednesday will mark the 13th game between the two programs. NC State leads the all-time series, 11-1, including an 8-1 mark in games played in Raleigh.
– Despite the Pack’s 11-1 advantage in the series, the last four meetings have all been single digit margins at the end of the game. NC State won by three in the most recent meeting, UNCG won by five the last time the two teams met in Raleigh (2018), the Pack won by six in 2015 and won by four in the 2013 meeting.
– NC State has an all-time record of 112-20 against teams currently in the Southern Conference.
– Last Meeting (December 15, 2019): After UNCG tied the game on a jump shot with two seconds remaining in regulation, Markell Johnson buried a shot from midcourt to give the Pack an 80-77 win over the Spartans in Greensboro Coliseum. NC State led 61-51 with 11:58 to play, but an 8-0 UNCG run got the Spartans back in the game. The Pack never relinquished the lead in the final minutes but the game seem destined for overtime until Johnson’s heave swished through the net. Johnson led NC State with 19 points in the win.
