NC State Wins a Tough One, 77-63 over ETSU

Game Summary:

The Wolfpack kicked of a series of challenging mid-major opponents this season with a hard-fought battle with the ETSU Bucs. ETSU showed why they were voted to finish 2nd in the SoCon this season.

Clearly, the Bucs’ game plan was “don’t let McNeil or Lubin get any open shots”, and they got it done. The Pack had 9 turnovers in the first half, and 5 were from Lubin and McNeil. The other battleground was at the point. The Bucs’ preseason All-Conference point BJ Ward (who scored 25 against Arizona State) versus Preston Edmead. Both played well, but Edmead was better. At the half he had 10 points, 4 assists, 0 turnovers, and 0 fouls. Ward had 4 points, 5 assists, 1 turnover, and 2 fouls. ETSU led 36-35 at the half.

The second half started with an ETSU 12-3 run to take a 52-42 lead after the first 3 minutes and then held the lead through a couple of possessions. And then a play happened that changed the tone of the game. Evans missed a layup; he got his own rebound and missed another point-blank shot. Yalaho got the offensive rebound. Hammond missed a 3PT shot and got his own rebound and passed it out to Edmead, who got it to McNeil who hit a 3PT shot cutting the lead to 7. And then there was a media timeout.

Coming out of the timeout, the Pack went on a 12-0 run and over the next 10 minutes pushed the lead to double digits and kept it there for the remainder of the game. Final NC State 77, ETSU 63.

Overall Takeaways:

• NC State won a game without Ven Lubin carrying the scoring load. We expected scoring to come from multiple players, nice to see it happen.
• The Pack rebounded well, winning overall 33-25
• The Wolfpack had 9 offensive rebounds in the second half, and only allowed ETSU 5 for the entire game
• NC State once again took time to adjust to the defense with 9 turnovers in the first half, but only 3 in the second
• 19 assists on 26 made Field goals

Coach Gainey Post Game Comments

Individual Highlights

• Preston Edmead was elite! – This was exactly what we hoped to see. He ran the offense for 38 minutes, dished 10 assists, and did not turn the ball over. And by the way, he led all scorers with 20 and got two steals.
• Christian Hammond – Everyone on my row agreed, he should be starting. He played 31 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assists and 2 steals.
• Kyle Evans played the game we want to see. He scored 8 points, led the team in rebounds with 6, 2 blocked shots, and an assist.
• Lubin (5 pts / 5 reb / 3 assists / 1 steal / 1 block) and McNeil (16 pts / 4 reb / 2 assist) weren’t the headlines, but they played really well.

Player Stats and Box Score

Box Score