NC State
Montana
Pack Set for Paradise Jam
11/17/2016 12:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NC State opens tournament Friday evening against Montana
The NC State men's basketball team opens the 2016 Paradise Jam Friday evening in St. Thomas, USVI at 6 p.m. EST against Montana.
NC State landed in St. Thomas on Wednesday evening and had a spirited 90-minute practice inside the UVI Sports and Fitness Center on Thursday morning.Â
Friday night's game will be shown on CBS Sports Network with Darren Goldwater (play-by-play), Kevin Lehman (analyst) and Monyka Johnigan (reporter) on the call.
The Wolfpack will play three games in four days at the Paradise Jam.
About the Opponent:
Montana is 0-2 to start the year after dropping its season-opener at USC on Nov. 11 and its home-opener to Wyoming on Tuesday. Sophomore guard Ahmaad Rorie is the Grizzlies leading scorer at 15.5 points per game. Rorie and freshman guard Sayeed Pridgett (10.5 ppg.) are the only two Montana players averaging double figures.
Series History:
This is the first-ever meeting between the Wolfpack and the Grizzlies.NC State has never beat a team from the Big Sky Conference. It is the only conference of the 31 DI conferences that the Wolfpack does not have a victory against. NC State is 0-1 all-time against the Big Sky. The only previous meeting against a Big Sky foe was Nov. 24, 1993 at the Great Alaska Shootout. Weber State beat the Pack, 94-80.Â
Balanced Scoring Attack      Â
NC State has had five players reach double figures in scoring in each of its games this season. Last season in 33 games, NC State only had three games where five players reached double figures in scoring. After two games, the Pack has six players averaging at least 11.5 points per game.
Getting Their First Run with the Pack      Â
Counting Terry Henderson (who only played the first six minutes of the season last year before being injured and lost for the year), over 70% of the minutes (281 of 400 minutes) played for NC State this season have been by players that did not play for the Wolfpack last season. NC State will eventually add another newcomer to its lineup when five-star recruit Omer Yurtseven becomes eligible to play. Yurtseven has to sit out the first nine games of the season for the Pack.
Shooting Star      Â
Sophomore guard Torin Dorn shot 50.5% from the field as a freshman at UNC-Charlotte in 2014-15 en route to being named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year, but he has been even more efficient shooting in the first two games of the season with the Pack. Through two games, Dorn is 15-of-21 (71.4%) from the field. He is 14-of-16 (87.5%) on two-pointers. Dorn did not miss a two-point field goal attempt in Sunday's game against St. Francis. He was 8-of-8 in the game inside the arc. He enters the Montana game having hit nine straight two-point field goal attempts.
