NC State 83 Detroit Mercy 66: BY THE NUMBERS

NC State finished non-conference today with a 83-66 win over Detroit Mercy this afternoon, heading into conference play with a 9-3 record. You can check out the Box Score here, and check out a breakdown of the victory…BY THE NUMBERS below.

• NC State got off to another sluggish start, with Detroit Mercy taking a 9-2 lead from the jump.
  • The Wolfpack recovered, by going on a 23-9 win after that.
• Senior Guard DJ Horne continues to put the Pack on his back.
  • Horne finished with 26 points on 9 of 15 shooting from the field and 6 of 11 from three.
    • He also had 6 rebounds and 6 assists (tied for team high).
  • This marks the 5th time this season that Horne has led NC State in scoring, which is tops on the team.
    • He has led the Pack in scoring in 3 of the last 4 games.
  • NC State was +28 with Horne in the game, which was tops on the team, and it wasn’t close.
• Senior Michael O’Connell is carving out significant playing time for himself.
  • O’Connell played 26 minutes, which was more minutes than 4 starters (Parker – 20, Taylor – 22, Morsell – 14, & Burns – 20).
  • The Wolfpack were +20 with O’Connell on the court, which was 2nd best on the team.
  • He had 6 assists (tied for team high), with 0 turnovers.
    • In the past two games, O’Connell has 11 assists with 0 turnovers.
• Junior Ben Middlebrooks continues to prove he deserves more playing time.
  • He finished with 11 points and 7 rebounds, which was tied for the team high with Dennis Parker Jr.
  • NC State was +15 when he was on the court, which ranked 3rd on the team.
• Senior D.J. Burns was 5 of 7 from the field, finishing with 10 points.
• Freshman Dennis Parker Jr. was 4 of 7 from the field, finishing with 10 points.
• Junior Jayden Taylor shot poorly for the 2nd straight game, but did lead the Wolfpack with 4 steals.
  • NC State was +4 with Taylor on the court, which was the lowest by a player with 10+ minutes.
• Offensively, I can’t complain with the Wolfpack’s shooting percentages from the field or beyond the arc.
  • NC State shot 50% from the field and 36% from three.
  • I can complain with NC State shooting 10 of 19 from the charity stripe.
    • Last game the Wolfpack shot 11 of 22 from the free throw line.
      • This is a problem.
• Defensively, NC State allowed an 0-12 team shoot 52% in the first half. For the game, that number was lowered to 44.8%, which is encouraging, but still frustrating that you allowed Detroit Mercy to score 34 points in the paint.
• NC State took care of the basketball, turning the ball over only 7 times, while turning Detroit over 16 times.
  • The Wolfpack scored 21 points off of turnovers.
• The Wolfpack assisted over half of their field goals, with 18 assists on 32 field goals.
• NC State won in 3 of the 4 Four Factors, winning the battle in effective field goal percentage, turnover percentage, and free throw rate. Detroit had a better offensive rebounding percentage.