NC State will take on Pittsburgh in the ACC Tournament after a one-point home loss to Stanford last weekend. The Wolfpack, which lost six of its last seven regular season games, will face Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The Panthers, the No. 15 seed, upset 10th seed Stanford in the first round of the tournament.
Game Details
The game will take place at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. Tipoff is at Noon p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 11.
Wolfpack Players to Watch
Senior forward Darrion Williams is averaging a team-high 14 points and 4.8 rebounds. Senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin is averaging 13.7 points and 7.1 rebounds. Senior guard Quadir Copeland is averaging 13.7 points and 6.6 assists. Sophomore guard Paul McNeil is averaging 13.5 points.
Quadir Copeland was named to the All-ACC Third Team on Monday. Copeland is averaging career best in points (13.7), assists (6.6), steals (1.8), field goal percentage (49.6%), three-point percentage (40.4%) and assist-turnover ratio (2.60). He leads the ACC in assists and ranks sixth in steals and seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio. Copeland’s 130 assists in league play are 24 more than the next closest player in ACC-only games. He has 205 assists on the season which are the 10th-most in a single season in program history and the most by an NC State player in the regular season since Chris Corchiani in the 1990-91 season.
Copeland is just the third ACC player in last 30 seasons to have 200+ assists & 400+ points in a single regular season, joining Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant (2014-15) and Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez (2007-08).
Panthers’ Key Players
Pittsburgh is led by eighth-year head coach Jeff Capel. Senior forward Cameron Corhen is averaging 13.2 points and 6.8 rebounds. Senior guard Barry Dunning Jr. is averaging 12.5 points and 5.9 rebounds. Sophomore guard Brandin Cummings is averaging 12.5 points and freshman forward Roman Siulepa is averaging 10 points and 5.5 rebounds.
Previous Matchup
State won the lone regular season matchup on the road, 81-72.
NC State’s Last Game
- NC State fell to Stanford, 85-84, to wrap up the regular season on Saturday.
- Ven-Allen Lubin led NC State in points (17) and rebounds (11) in the loss to the Cardinal.
- Lubin has shot over 50 percent in every game except for two this season and leads the ACC and ranks third in the NCAA with his 68.4 shooting percentage.
Lubin’s field goal percentage is currently the second-best single-season field goal percentage in ACC history, trailing only UNC’s Brendan Haywood who shot 69.7 percent from the field in the 1999-2000 season. In his fourth season of college basketball, Lubin is averaging a career-best 13.7 points per game and his rebounding average of 7.1 per game is also the best of his career.