A dramatic turnaround from the exhibition last week
Forever in the rafters pic.twitter.com/1UGcwrtKDl
— NC State Men’s Basketball (@PackMensBball) November 5, 2024
Game Summary:
The Wolfpack fixed many of the glaring issues we saw in last week’s exhibition game. The game was seldom in doubt, the Pack stretched the lead to 18 in the first half and closed the half with a 15-point lead, 50-35. O’Connell, Styles, and Pass accounted for 27 of those 50 points.
It was nice to see the Pack maintain the intensity into the second half, despite the lead. We almost doubled our score (+47), more than doubled our rebounds (+25) and assists (+11) and cut down on turnovers, from 8 in the first half to 3 in the second.
This was exactly what we needed.
Overall Takeaways:
- The Pack shot well from the field (55.9%), 36 fast break points will do that for you
- We need to work on free throw shooting, only 57.1%
- Upstate out hustled us on the offensive rebounds, 18-15
- 54 points in the paint is outstanding
- 20 assists on 38 made FG is very good
- Nobody played more than 25 minutes, nobody played less than 11
- 11 players played, 11 players scored, 11 players rebounded
Individual Highlights
- The NCAA has imposed a two game suspension on Ismaël Diouf due to his involvement with the Montreal Alliance pro team. He will miss the Friday game as well.
- Ben Middlebrooks had an outstanding box score, double-double and 4 blocks
- We finally saw Marcus Hill do what he does, 7-10 from the field
- Trey Parker had a very good game, 2-4 from 3PT, 4 assists, 2 steals
- Michael O’Connell is still post season Mike, 9 points, 6 assists, 2-4 from 3PT
- The three freshmen accounted for 12 rebounds and 18 points