Pack in Search of Fifth Straight Win as it Hosts McNeese State

The NC State men's basketball team looks for its 10th win of the season Thursday night as it hosts McNeese State at PNC Arena. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be shown on ACC Network Extra. Andrew Sanders and Chris Corchiani, NC State's career assists leader, will call the game on ACC Network Extra.

Fans can also listen to the game on the Wolfpack Sports Network with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes calling the action.

Pack Tracks
- NC State defeated Fairfield, 99-78, Sunday afternoon to win its fourth straight game of the season. The Pack had five players score in double figures in the game, led by Terry Henderson with a game-high 25 points. Dennis Smith Jr., added 17 points and a season-high nine assists. Smith's nine assists were the most for a Wolfpack player since Tyler Lewis had 11 assists in a 71-64 win over Virginia Tech on Feb. 22, 2014.
- The Wolfpack have scored 90+ points in two consecutive games. It is the first time NC State has had back-to-back 90+-point games since the 2005-06 season. The Pack defeated Stetson, 91-61, in the season-opener on Nov. 18, 2005 and a day later on Nov. 19, defeated The Citadel, 91-59. The first three games of the 1995-96 season was the last time the Pack scored 90+-points in three consecutive games.
- NC State's 25 assists on Sunday vs. Fairfield were the most for the Wolfpack since the team had 26 in a 91-61 win over Morehead State on Nov. 13, 2011. That game was the second game the Wolfpack played with Mark Gottfried as head coach.
- NC State is off to a 9-2 start for the fourth time in the last five seasons. A win Thursday would give the Pack its best start to a season since the 2012-13 team opened the year 14-2.

Noting NC State
- NC State held its third straight opponent to less than 1.00 point per possession on Sunday in the win over Fairfield. The Pack has had its two best defensive performances of the season in the previous two games prior to Sunday's game versus the Stags. The Pack held Appalachian State 0.77 points per possession, five days after holding Tennessee State to 0.80 points per possession. The Pack has held an opponent to less than 1.00 points per possession five times this season. (St. Francis Brooklyn and Saint Joseph's)
- The Pack has had its two best bench production games of the season in the two games it has had its full complement of scholarship players available. The Pack had three players score in double figures off-the-bench in the win over Appalachian State on 12/15 after having only three individual double-digit scoring performances off-the-bench in the first nine games. The Pack scored 46 bench points against Appalachian State, double its previous-best performance which was 23 points. On Sunday against Fairfield, Omer Yurtseven led the NC State bench with 12 points as the Pack scored 29 bench points. For the season, the Pack has 172 points (15.6) off-the-bench, while its opponents have 282 points (25.6) off-the-bench. NC State has been down two scholarship players most of the season and at some points three scholarship players.
- While the Pack has been outrebounded in six of 11 games this season, NC State has outscored its opponents in second chance points in four of the last six games. The Wolfpack limited Fairfield to a season-low two second chance points on Sunday.
- The Pack has had more assists than turnovers in nine of its 11 games this season. The only games where the Pack had more turnovers than assists were the games at Illinois on Nov. 29 and the game vs. Tennessee State on Dec. 10.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., is the only Pack player to score in double figures in every game this season.

NC State vs. McNeese State Series
            Thursday will mark the first ever meeting between the Pack and Fairfield ... NC State is 5-0 all-time against teams from the Southland.

Balanced Scoring Attack
            NC State has had five or more players reach double figures in scoring in four games this season. Last season in 33 games, NC State only had three games where five players reached double figures in scoring. The Pack had five players reach double-figures in wins over Georgia Southern (Nov. 11), St. Francis Brooklyn (Nov. 13) and Fairfield (Dec. 18) and had six players in double figures in the win over Appalachian State (Dec. 15). The Pack has had four different players lead the team in scoring this season: Terry Henderson vs. Georgia Southern, Creighton, Boston University, Tennessee State and Fairfield, Torin Dorn vs. St. Francis and Illinois, Abdul-Malik Abu vs. Montana and Dennis Smith, Jr., vs. Saint Joseph's, Loyola (Chicago) and Appalachian State. Through 11 games this season, the Pack has five players averaging in double figures.

Getting Their First Run with the Pack
            Counting Terry Henderson (who only played the first six minutes of the season last year before being injured and lost for the year), 73.8% of the minutes (1642 of 2225 minutes) played for NC State this season have been by players that did not play for the Wolfpack last season. Not counting Henderson, the Pack has had seven players make their NC State debut this season, including five freshmen. The five freshmen have played 890 minutes this season, 40% of the total minutes played on the year. The freshmen class accounts for the highest percentage of minutes played this season for NC State.

Shooting Star
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.
            Through 11 games this season, Dorn is 63-of-112 (56.3%) from the field to rank 5th in the ACC in field goal percentage. He is 48-of-80 (60%) on two-pointers and 15-of-32 (46.9%) on three-pointers. Dorn did not miss a two-point field goal attempt in the Nov. 13 game against St. Francis. He was 8-of-8 in the game on two-pointers. He also hit his his first four field goals against Montana before missing a layup late in the first half to snap his streak of 13 consecutive 2-point field goals made.

One of Top-Scoring Trios in ACC
            Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., sophomore Torin Dorn and senior Terry Henderson combine to form one of the top-scoring trios in the ACC. The three players all rank in the top-16 in the ACC in scoring as NC State is the only team in the ACC to have three players in the top-15. The trio combines to average 51.4 points per game. Overall, Dorn, Henderson and Smith have combined to score 471 points this season, which is 62.0% of the points scored by NC State this year.

Top Scoring Trios in ACC
Pittsburgh - Michael Young (22.0), Jamel Artis (20.1), Cameron Johnson (11.7)     53.8
Duke - Luke Kennard (20.3), Grayson Allen (17.2), Amile Jefferson (14.3)   51.8
NC State - Dennis Smith, Jr. (18.5), Terry Henderson (17.4), Torin Dorn (15.5)      51.4

Freshmen Running the Show
            Freshman point guards Dennis Smith, Jr., and Markell Johnson run the show for the Wolfpack this season. The two players combined have 89 assists and 43 turnovers in 631 minutes of action this season. The two combine to average just 1 turnover every 14.7 minutes. Johnson (29 assists/12 turnovers) has a 2.42 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Smith (60 assists/31 turnovers) has a 1.94 assist-to-turnover ratio. Through 11 games, NC State is averaging 82.9 points per game and shooting 48.7% from the field. The two freshmen also rank 1st (Smith - 20) and 2nd (Johnson - 13) on the team in steals.

Mr. Double-Double
            Junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu has two double-doubles this season and now has 18 for his career. The 18 double-doubles are the most of any current player in the ACC. Abu had two double-doubles as a freshman and 14 last season as a sophomore.

Pack in Search of Fifth Straight Win as it Hosts McNeese State

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Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

Torin Dorn

Terry Henderson

Markell Johnson

Dennis Smith, Jr.

Omer Yurtseven