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Keys to the Game: NC State vs. Tennessee

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NC State vs Tennessee
7pm | PNC Arena | ESPN2

Tennessee comes to Raleigh with a 4-3 record, but don’t take that too lightly. So far the Vols don’t have a bad loss, they just have a very tough early season schedule. They lost to #15 VCU, #11 Kansas and Marquette (on a neutral court). This will be Tennessee’s first true road game.

Players to Watch:
Tennessee relies heavily on the scoring of senior guard Josh Richardson, who is averaging 17 ppg so far this season. Richardson is a big 6’6 slashing guard with decent touch and good athleticism. He’s backed up by junior forward Armani Moore. The 6’5 wing is a smaller guy that plays classic Volunteer basketball. He’s long, wrangley and tough. He averages 10 ppg, but is the team’s leading rebounder at 7.

Who is Tennessee:
The Vols are coming off a big win over #15 Butler and a 1 point win over Kansas State a few days earlier. This a hot team right now that is coming into Raleigh with the Pack still trying to find themselves.

Tennessee is a team that want to play a messy, gritty, physical basketball game. They are going to bump State off their cuts and not allow them to run their offense. They are not really that great a rebounding or a scoring team, but they’ll keep games in the mid-60s if it’s up to them.

Keys to the Game:
Keys for State will be to play through contact. This is going to be a physical game and the Pack is going to have to deal with it. Tennessee is not a big team and they aren’t a great rebounding team so State has a big advantage there. Last time out the Wolfpack bigs didn’t do too much. Tonight the game is on their shoulders. They’re going to need to keep the Vols off the glass and limit second chance opportunities.

Another key is going to be Trevor Lacey. Right now Lacey is scoring at about the same clip Warren was at this point last season. The only different is that Lacey isn’t being used as much. I know it’s against Trevor’s style of play to be a high volume scorer, but he’s going to have to if this team wants to put points on the board, and especially if the bigs are going to be as uninvolved as they were against Wofford.

Bench points! State needs them. Against Wofford they didn’t get them. Washington, the Martin Twins and Dez Lee are all going to have to contribute if they want to be this Tennessee team that is built to wear you down and knock you out.

 

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NC State Basketball

NC State 84 BC 78: BOX SCORE

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NC State improved to 5-2 this afternoon, defeating Boston College 84-78 on the road, winning their 2023-24 ACC opener. Below is the box score.

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NC State Basketball

NC State is a Slight Underdog in ACC Opener vs. Boston College

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NC State (4-2) will play their first ACC game of the 2023-24 season tomorrow on the road against Boston College (5-2), and they enter the game as slight underdogs. The Wolfpack are 1.5-point underdogs, and the Total is 150.5.

  • NC State is 0-2 Straight Up as underdogs
    • BC is 4-1 Straight Up as favorites.
  • NC State is 2-4 Against the Spread.
    • BC is 4-3 Against the Spread
  • The Total has gone Under in 2 games for NC State, Over in 3 and Pushed in 1.
    • The Total has gone Under in 3 games for Boston College and Over in 4.
  • NC State is 6-4 in their last 10 games against BC Straight Up.
    • NC State is 4–6 Against the Spread in their last 10 games against BC.
    • The Total has gone Under in 5 games, and Under in the other 5.

NC State

Boston College 

 

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NC State Basketball

#5 NC State 70 Vanderbilt 62: BOX SCORE (with notes)

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The 5th ranked NC State Women’s Basketball team improved to 8-0 tonight, defeating Vanderbilt 70-62 in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge.

Notes

  • Saniya Rivers scored 20+ points for the 2nd time this season, scoring 22 points on 8 of 14 shooting. She also chipped in 8 rebounds and 2 steals.
  • River Baldwin posted her first double-double of the season. She scored 12 points and grabbed 10 boards.
  • Aziaha James has now scored in double figures in 7 of 8 games, scoring 14 points tonight, shooting 6 of 10 from the field and 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.
  • Freshman Zoe Brooks led the Pack in steals (4) and assists (4).
  • NC State didn’t shoot well, making only 39% of their shots. Fortunately, they held Vandy to 34.3% shooting.

The Wolfpack will host Illinois State on Sunday at 2pm.

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NC State Basketball

NC State Stat Leaders Heading into the ACC Opener vs Boston College

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This Saturday, NC State heads to Boston College for the now-annual early ACC opener. The Pack will face off against the Eagles at 4pm on ACC Network. Here is where the team is statistically after 6 games.

  • Casey Morsell leads NC State in scoring with 14.5 ppg.
  • The Pack has 4 double-digit scorers this season. Morsell (14.5), Jayden Taylor (13.3), DJ Burns (13) and DJ Horne (11.2)
    (Last season State had 4 double-digit scorers as well. Terquavion (17.9), Joiner (17), Burns (12.5) and Morsell (11.8)) 
  • After their top 4 scorers there is a big dip. Parker comes in at 6.8, O’Connell at 6.3, and Middlebrooks at 5.5 ppg.
    (Last season Jack Clark was 5th on the team in scoring at 9 points and Mahorcic was at 8.7. However, both guys missed a large chunk of the season.) 
  • Burns is leading NC State in rebounding this year at 5.3 per game. Diarra is next with 5.3 (but is currently hampered by an ankle injury.) 
  • O’Connell is leading NC State in assists with 3.3 per game, and Burns is up next with 2.5. PG DJ Horne is only averaging 2.
  • LJ Thomas and Mike O’Connell are tied in leading the team at .15 assists per minute.
  • Jayden Taylor is leading NC State in 3pt %, shooting an outstanding 45.8%, while Morsell is up next at 34.6%. Horne is close behind at 33%.
    (LJ Thomas is shooting 50% from 3, but only has 2 attempts.) 
  • Burns is leading the bigs, shooting 56.5% from the floor, while Middlebrooks is close behind at 54.2%. Dennis Parker Jr is coming in at 45.2%.
  • For the guards, it’s Casey Morsell leading the way at 44.6% from the floor, while O’Connell is next up at 43.4%. Taylor is shooting 42.4%, and DJ Horne is struggling a bit, shooting just 34.8% from the field.
  • Jayden Taylor is turning the ball over the most at 1.8 times per game, while Burns is next at 1.7. Morsell is at 1.5 and O’Connell is at 1.2. DJ Horne has been doing a good job of protecting the basketball, turning it over just .3 times per game.

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