Pack Hosts Jacksonville in Non-Conference Finale

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RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team closes non-conference play Friday evening when it hosts Jacksonville on Star Wars night at PNC Arena.

The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be televised on Regional Sports Networks with Tom Werme and Jason Capel on the call. The game will be shown in the Raleigh area on Fox Sports South. Other RSNs also showing the game are FOX Sports Sun, FOX Sports Midwest Plus, YES (delay broadcast - 11pm), NBC Sports Washington (delay broadcast - Sat. 12/23 at 12pm), NESN, AT&T Sportsnet Pittsburgh, FOX Sports Detroit Plus, FOX Sports North Plus, FOX Sports Southwest Plus, FOX Sports West, AT&T Sportsnet Las Vegas, AT&T Sportsnet Rocky Mountain and Root Sports Northwest.

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

The first 1,000 fans to enter the arena on Friday night will receive Wolfpack Star Wars Property Signs.

Pack Tracks
- NC State defeated Robert Morris, 81-69, Tuesday night at PNC Arena. The Pack was paced by double-doubles from Torin Dorn, Lennard Freeman and Omer Yurtseven in the win. Abdul-Malik Abu also had his best game of the season as he added 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in the win.
- Dorn (17 points/10 rebounds), L. Freeman (11 points/12 rebounds) and Yurtseven (12 points/10 rebounds) became the first NC State trio to all record double-doubles in the same game since Feb. 23, 2013 when Lorenzo Brown, Richard Howell and TJ Warren all had double-doubles at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- Lennard Freeman and Omer Yurtseven have been efficient scorers for the Pack this season. The two combine to average 24.3 points per game. Freeman is shooting 73.7% from the field, while Yurtseven is shooting 65.2%. Freeman and Yurtseven would rank first and second in the ACC in field goal percentage, but both fall just short of the required average of five made field goals per game to qualify. (Freeman averages 4.7 made field goals per game and Yurtseven averages 4.8 made field goals per game.) Yurtseven. is shooting 81.1 percent (30-of-37) from the field over the last six games, while Freeman is shooting 75.7% (28-of-37) in the past six games.

NC State-Jacksonville Series
- Friday's meeting marks the 4th meeting all-time between the two programs.
- The Pack defeated Jacksonville, 79-43, on 11/20/14. Prior to that meeting, the two programs hadn't met since the late 1960s.
- NC State has an all-time record of 11-0 against teams from the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Constant Defensive Pressure leading to Opponent Turnovers
NC State head coach Kevin Keatts came to Raleigh promising that his program would pressure the opponents full court and create turnovers. Through seven games his inaugural Wolfpack team is living up to his promise.
- The Pack has forced four of its 10 opponents this season into 20+-turnovers. The last NC State team to force opponents into 20 or more turnovers four times in a season was the 2009-10 team. The last seven NC State teams (2010-11 team through 2016-17 team) only twice forced opponents into 20 turnovers (2010-11 team forced East Carolina into 20 turnovers on 11/18/10 and 2016-17 team forced Virginia Tech into 20 turnovers on 1/4/17). In Keatts first four games at NC State, his teams forced opponents into 21 (VMI), 24 (Charleston Southern), 27 (Bryant) and 22 (Presbyterian) turnovers.
- The 27 turnovers NC State forced Bryant into on Nov. 14 are the most turnovers the Pack has forced an opponent to commit since Mount St. Mary's had 27 on Nov. 22, 2002.
- In the first four games this season, the Pack forced its opponents into more turnovers than made field goals.
- In 12 games, the Pack has forced 201 turnovers. The 16.8 turnovers forced per game ranks tied for 35th in NCAA Dl and are the second most forced turnovers by a team from the ACC.
- NC State recorded 14 steals in Tuesday's win over Bryant. It's the most steals in a game for NC State since the Pack had 16 steals in a win over Boston College on Jan. 19, 2012. It was a 192 game span between 14+-steal games for the Pack. NC State has 101 steals in 12 games this season, a mark that ranks third in the ACC and 31st overall in NCAA DI.

Winning the Turnover Battle
Not only have the Pack been forcing turnovers, but they have been protecting the basketball, too. NC State has had 10 or fewer turnovers in five of its 12 games this season.
- The Pack is +51 in turnover margin. Pack has forced 201 turnovers and only turned it over themselves 150 times. +51 turnover margin is tied for Virginia for the best in the ACC.
- Major turnaround from last year's team. Last season, NC State finished the season -67 in turnover margin, including -14 mark in non-conference games.

Healthy Freeman Becoming an Offensive Force
NC State senior Lennard Freeman had offseason leg surgery prior to the 2015-16 season and after playing through pain that season, elected to have offseason leg surgery again prior to the 2016-17 season and sat out the year to recover. Now fully healthy, Freeman has started his senior season with an offensive outburst.
- A career 3.6 points per game average coming into the season, Freeman has reset his career-high three times this season and is averaging 12.5 points per game through nine games. He opened the year with 15 points against VMI, had 20 against Bryant and then had 23 in the Pack's win against Presbyterian.
- Freeman is shooting a team-best 73.7 percent from the field this season. Freeman would lead the ACC in field goal percentage, but falls just short of the minimum number of field goal makes to rank among ACC leaders. To be listed you have to average 5 made field goals per game, Freeman has made 56 field goals in 12 games (average of 4.7 per game).
- The senior is connecting on 74.5 percent of his foul shots (38-of-51). The Washington D.C. native, entered this season a career 47.9 percent free throw shooter.
- In 103 career games coming into this season, Freeman had only scored in double figures six times, he's scored in double figures in 8 of 12 games this season.
- Has already scored 150 points this season, the most points he has ever scored in a single season in his career.
- The game against Presbyterian on November 16 was the 107th career game in an NC State uniform for Freeman. It was the first time in those 107 games that Freeman led NC State in scoring. Freeman led the Pack in scoring for the second time in his career with 19 points in a 103-71 win over South Carolina State on Dec. 2.
- Freeman, who entered this season as a player best known for doing the gritty things that don't show up in the box score, has also set career-highs with three steals and three blocks this season, both set against Presbyterian.

Bench Production
- NC State's bench is averaging to score 24.5 points per game this season. The Pack's bench has outscored the opponents bench, 294-214 this year.
- NC State's bench has outscored the opponents bench in eight of 12 games this season.
- In the win over No. 2 Arizona at the Battle 4 Atlantis, NC State's bench outscored Arizona's, 39-6. Braxton Beverly had 20 points off-the-bench for the Pack in the win, while Omer Yurtseven had 11 points and a team-best nine rebounds.
- In the game against Northern Iowa, NC State's bench outscored the Panther's, 30-2. Yurtseven led the team in points (17) and rebounds (13) in the game against UNI.
- In the most recent outing against Penn State, NC State's bench outscored the Nittany Lions, 39-9. The Pack's bench consisting of Yurtseven, Sam Hunt and Lavar Batts, Jr., combined to shoot 12-for-15 from the field (80 percent), including 9-for-10 from three-point range.

Yurtseven Selected to Preseason Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Watch List
NC State sophomore center Omer Yurtseven has been selected as one of 20 student-athletes to the preseason watch list for this year's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award. Yurtseven was also on the preseason list that honors the nation's top center last season. A former five-star recruit, Yurtseven averaged 5.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game last season.

Noting NC State's Returning and Lost
- Senior forward Abdul-Malik Abu is NC State's leading returning scorer (11.8 ppg.) and rebounder (7.0 rpg.). The Boston, Mass., native has led NC State in rebounding the last two seasons and is aiming to be the first NC State player to lead the Pack in rebounding in three consecutive seasons since Todd Fuller did it from 1993-96. Abu suffered a Grade 2 MCL Sprain in October and has only appeared in six games this season.
- Torin Dorn (18 starts) and Omer Yurtseven (14 starts) also return for the Pack. Dorn averaged 9.5 points & 4.6 rebounds per game last season, while Yurtseven added 5.9 points & 4.4 rebounds per game.
- NC State must replace its top three scorers from last season in Dennis Smith, Jr. (18.1), Terry Henderson (13.8) and Maverick Rowan (12.0). The Pack also lost the school's all-time shot block leader in BeeJay Anya (243 career blocks). Smith, Jr., was named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the first Pack player to accomplish this feat since Hawkeye Whitney in 1977. Smith was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the ninth pick of the NBA Draft. Henderson, after having his appeal denied to return to NC State, went through training camp with the Charlotte Hornets and is now on the Greensboro Swarm roster in the NBA G-League. Rowan was the third overall selection of the NBA G-League draft by the Lakeland Magic.
- NC State joins Florida State and Pittsburgh as the only ACC teams to lose its top three scorers from last season.

Pack Hosts Jacksonville in Non-Conference Finale

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Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

Braxton Beverly

Torin Dorn

Lennard Freeman

Sam Hunt

Omer Yurtseven