Raleigh, NC – The NC State men’s basketball team returns to action Tuesday evening when it plays at Georgia Tech. Tipoff at McCamish Pavilion is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game will be televised on the ACC Network.
NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.
Pack Tracks
– NC State fell to Pitt, 71-69, Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh. The game featured nine ties and 19 lead changes, but the Panthers prevailed after finishing +20 in rebounding and shooting 23-of-25 (92%) from the foul line.
– Redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron led NC State with 17 points against Pitt. It was the 10th 20+-point performance of the season for the Norfolk, Va., native. Seabron has now led NC State in scoring 12 times this season, in rebounding 21 times, assists 16 times and steals eight times. He leads the Pack in all four statistical categories. Seabron is one of only just five DI players and three Power-five players (Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and USC’s Isaiah Mobley) to lead their team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
– Seabron scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half on Saturday. In Wednesday against Wake Forest, Seabron scored 17 of his 22 points in the final 20 minutes. Overall, he scored 32 of his 39 points in the second half last week. For the season, Seabron averages to score 11.9 of his 18.2 points per game in the final 20 minutes.
– Senior guard Thomas Allen scored a season-high 14 points after hitting a season-best four three-pointers at Pitt. Allen contributed 14 of the Pack’s 26 bench points on Saturday. The 26 bench points are the third most in a single game for NC State this season and the most since scoring 27 on Dec. 29 at Miami. NC State entered this season having outscored the opponent’s bench by 850 points in the Kevin Keatts era, but this season NC State’s bench has been outscored by the opponent’s bench by 185 points.
Tuesday Storylines
– The Pack has lost all four games against Georgia Tech under head coach Kevin Keatts, but all four games have come down to the final minute.
– On March 1, 2018, NC State led 72-71 with 2:14 to play before a 7-0 run gave Georgia Tech a 78-72 lead. The Pack hit a three to cut the deficit in half and then forced a turnover to get the ball back. NC State missed two three-pointers on its final possession and the Yellow Jackets escaped with a 78-75 win.
– On March 6, 2019, Torin Dorn made a three-pointer with six seconds remaining to give the Pack a 61-60 lead, but Georgia Tech’s Jose Alvarado drove the length of the floor and found James Banks for a lay-up as Banks was fouled with under one second remaining and the Yellow Jackets won, 63-61.
– On November 5, 2019, Georgia Tech never led in regulation as it didn’t take its first lead of the game until making a three-pointer on its first possession of overtime. The Pack led 81-80 with 35 seconds remaining, but Georgia Tech’s James Banks was fouled with two seconds left and he made both free throws to lift Georgia Tech to an 82-81 overtime win.
– In the most recent meeting on January 25, 2020, NC State made a field goal with 44 seconds remaining to tie the game at 58, but Georgia Tech scored on its next possession and then James Alvarado stole the ball twice from NC State in the final 10 seconds as he scored the final four points of the game to give the Yellow Jackets a 64-58 win.
– Jericole Hellems has made 18 consecutive free throws and now ranks fourth in the ACC in free throw percentage at 83.5 percent. The Saint Louis, Mo., native is now tied for 15th on the Pack’s career free throw percentage list at 79.1 percent. Hellems last missed a free throw at the beginning of the second half in the Pack’s game against Florida State on Jan. 1.
– Terquavion Smith is just 5-for-28 (17.9%) from the field and 4-for-18 (22.2%) from three-point range in the Pack’s last two games, but he has shown that he is more than just a shooter. Against Wake Forest on Wednesday, he had four assists and zero turnovers while on Saturday at Pitt, he led NC State in rebounds, assists and steals as he tied his high against an ACC opponent with seven rebounds, passed out a career-best six assists and had two steals.
– Terquavion Smith has hit 73 three-pointers which are the second-most in program history by a freshman. Maverick Rowan holds the freshman record with 81. Smith’s current pace has him finishing the season with 90 three-pointers which would rank as the sixth-most in a single-season in program history and the most since Ralston Turner made 94 in the 2014-15 season.
– Biggest stat indicator for an NC State win? Opponent field goal percentage. In its 16 losses this season, NC State’s opponents are shooting a combined 49.8 percent from the field and 38.6 percent from three-point range. NC State is 1-10 this season if its opponent shoots over 50 percent from the field. During the Pack’s current six-game losing streak, four of its six opponents have shot over 50 percent from the field. In the Pack’s wins, opponents are shooting 42 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from three-point range.
NC State – Georgia Tech Series
– Wednesday is the 101st meeting between the two programs. NC State leads the all-time series, 56-43. The NCAA’s IARP ruled in December that the Pack must vacate the program’s 71-69 win inside McCamish Pavilion on Feb. 21, 2017.
– Taking away the Pack’s vacated win, Georgia Tech has won six consecutive meetings in the series. NC State’s last win was an 81-80 overtime victory over the Yellow Jackets on Jan. 31, 2015, in McCamish Pavilion. Trevor Lacey drained a three-pointer as the buzzer sounded to give NC State the win.
– Kevin Keatts is 0-4 against Georgia Tech as head coach of NC State. The Yellow Jackets are the only ACC team that NC State has not beaten under Keatts.
– Last season: The two teams did not play in the 2020-21 season. They were originally scheduled to play on Jan. 16, 2021, inside PNC Arena, but NC State went on a COVID pause two days before the game and the teams were never able to reschedule the game. It was the first time since the 1978-79 season that the two program did not play each other.