NC State Handles Ole Miss 76–62 in Greensboro

NC State (9–4) handled business this afternoon down the road in Greensboro, beating Ole Miss (7–5) 76–62 in a non-conference, neutral-site bout. Here are my Quick Hits.

Box Score

The Wolfpack players heard Head Coach Will Wade’s scathing postgame press conference earlier this week. After NC State crushed Texas Southern by 36 points on Wednesday night, Wade ripped his team apart.

The Pack played its best half of basketball I’ve seen all season in the first half today.

Defensively, NC State played great on-the-ball defense, handled screens well, and contested nearly every shot. As a result, the Rebels scored only 26 points in the first half, shooting just 34.8% from the field and 21.4% from three.

Offensively, the Wolfpack moved the ball extremely well in the half court, scoring 13 of their 16 field goals off assists.

NC State shot 53.3% from the field and 47.6% from three in the first half.

Sophomore guard Paul McNeil Jr. was back at it, hitting 4 of his 8 three-point attempts and leading the team with 12 points in the first half.

Senior guard Quadir Copeland was the driving force behind NC State’s offensive success, dishing out 7 assists with only 1 turnover in the first 20 minutes.

Ole Miss rebounded in the final 10 minutes of play and outscored the Wolfpack by five in the second half.

After carrying a 19-point lead into halftime, NC State increased the advantage to 28 points at the 13:47 mark. With 10:49 left in the game, the Wolfpack still led by 26.

Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard was visibly frustrated with his team, benching much of his starting lineup for a large portion of the second half. The Rebels’ reserves played the brand of basketball Beard was looking for, cutting the Wolfpack lead to 14 points by the end of regulation.

Paul McNeil Jr. led the Pack in scoring for the second straight game, finishing with 19 points and 6 rebounds. The sophomore was clicking from downtown once again, hitting 6 of 12 from three.

Senior guard Quadir Copeland finished one assist shy of a double-double, posting 16 points and 9 assists with 3 turnovers. Copeland shot 6 of 8 from the field and 2 of 4 from beyond the arc, while also leading the team with 7 rebounds.

NC State played its best basketball when McNeil Jr. and Copeland were on the court. The Wolfpack was +17 with each of them on the floor.

Senior guard Tre Holloman provided instant offense off the bench, scoring 16 points while shooting 6 of 10 from the field and 4 of 7 from three. Holloman also played the best defense I’ve seen from him this season.

Senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin quietly did what we’ve come to expect, finishing with 15 points on 7 of 8 shooting.

NC State did not take care of the basketball at the level you’d like to see, committing 16 turnovers. Ten of those came in the second half, when the Wolfpack had extended stretches with lineups made up mostly of bench players.

Ole Miss committed one fewer turnover and finished +8 in points off turnovers. Despite both teams recording the same number of offensive rebounds, NC State was +8 in second-chance points.

After sitting out the game against Texas Southern earlier this week with a shoulder injury, senior forward Darrion Williams turned in one of the worst offensive performances of his career. Williams missed all 8 of his shots from the field, finishing with just 1 point from the free-throw line.

If you had told me at the beginning of the season that NC State would beat Ole Miss by 14 points in a game where the preseason Player of the Year scored just 1 point, I wouldn’t have believed it.

All in all, NC State responded in a big way to Will Wade’s frustrations, picking up a solid win over an SEC opponent.