NC State 66 Coppin St. 56: BY THE NUMBERS

NC State entered last night’s contest against Coppin St. as 32.5-point favorites. It was supposed to be a blow out. The Wolfpack were facing an 0-10 team, that literally was ranked 2nd-to-last in the NET Rankings.

The Bald Eagles’ came out of the gate swinging, jumping out to a 17-8 lead to start the game.

The Wolfpack missed their first 10 field goal attempts.

The last time Coppin St. led the game was at the 7:42 mark in the 1st half, and the Wolfpack would take the lead for good at the 5:17 mark.

NC State led by 7 at the break. After halftime, the Wolfpack allowed the Bald Eagles to make it a 4-point game at the 18:37 mark, but that was as close as they would let it get for the remaining of the contest.

Nonetheless, Coppin St. wasn’t really out of this game until the very end, which speaks volumes for the Bald Eagles, and doesn’t say much about the Wolfpack.

NC State won an ugly game in the Old Barn. The Total was sitting at 136.5 entering the game, and the two teams combined to score only 122 points.

The Wolfpack found a way to win a game in which they shot a putrid 36.7% from the field. Coppin St. shot 43.2%. This was the worst shooting performance by NC State through the first 10 games.

The Bald Eagles actually shot 2 more free throws in the game, but both teams made 16 each.

NC State snagged 7 more offensive boards, but they were extremely inefficient at turning them into points. The Bald Eagles scored 12 second chance points, while the Wolfpack scored 11. NC State’s 16 offensive boards were a season high.

At the end of the day, NC State won because they scored 17 points off of turnovers, and Coppin St. only scored 6. When you’re not shooting good, it often comes down to taking scoring opportunities away from your opponent by creating turnovers, and turning them into easy baskets.

The Wolfpack won a game in which Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Michael O’Connell and Jayden Taylor combined to score 4 points, shooting 1-7 from the field. Sure, the trio shot bad, but they also simply weren’t active. O’Connell took 1 shot, Taylor took 2 and Huntley-Hatfield took 4 (missing them all).

For the third straight game, it has been the new guys that have put the Wolfpack on their back. Senior Guard Marcus Hill and Senior Forward Dontrez Styles have been NC State’s leading scorers for the last three games.

Hill finished with 16 points (5-11 FG), and Styles finished with 15 (3-5 from three) and 7 boards..

Senior Forward Ben Middlebrooks had 13 points and 5 boards, with all of his rebounds coming from the Offensive glass. Middlebrooks was 3 of 6 from the field, and 7 of 9 from the charity stripe.

Sophomore Guard Dennis Parker Jr. was great off the bench, with 10 points and 4 boards, shooting 4 of 6 from the field, and 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.