Pack Hosts Wake Forest Wednesday

Live Stats

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team returns to action Wednesday evening when it hosts Wake Forest inside PNC Arena.

The game will tipoff at 8 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network with Jay Alter and Malcolm Huckaby calling the action. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- NC State plays its first home game in 18 days - and just its second in entire month of January - Wednesday when it hosts Wake Forest.
- The Pack dropped its fourth straight game when it failed to complete a season-sweep of North Carolina, falling to the Tar Heels 86-76 in Chapel Hill on Saturday. NC State placed a season-high five players in double figures against North Carolina, led by Devon Daniels who scored 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting. D.J Funderburk (14), Braxton Beverly (12), Jericole Hellems (11) and Manny Bates (10) also scored in double figures.
- Senior guard Braxton Beverly reached two milestones in the last game against North Carolina. In the second half, he connected on his 200th career three-pointer, becoming only the fifth player in program history to hit 200 three-pointers in their career. He also had a career-high five steals against the Tar Heels with the fifth steal being the 100th of his career. Beverly is now just the third-player in program history - joining Rodney Monroe (1987-91) and Engin Atsur (2003-07) - to hit 200 three-pointers, pass out 250 assists and record 100 steals in their career.
- As a freshman, Manny Bates became the first freshman to lead the ACC in blocks in over a decade. As a sophomore this year, Bates continues to be a defensive menace, leading the ACC and ranking third in the NCAA with an average of 3.4 blocks per game, but he is also showcasing an improved offensive game. He has nearly doubled his scoring output from last season and in five ACC games is shooting 69% (20-of-29) from the field, the best percentage of any ACC player (min 3FGs/game).

Wednesday Storylines
- Searching for the right lineup. It may be the end of January on the calendar, but NC State is still trying to find the right combination of players this season, in large part due to two program stops that have led to a total of seven canceled or postponed games. NC State has only had four of its 14-player roster appear in all 11 games this season. The Pack has had a different starting lineup in four consecutive games leading into Wednesday's Wake Forest game and has had seven different starting lineup combinations in 11 games this season. In the 2018-19 season, the Pack played 36 games and only had seven different starting lineup combinations the entire season. Last season in 32 games, NC State had 10 different starting lineup combinations in 32 games.
- This a matchup of two teams that have been hit harder by the pandemic this season. On Wednesday, Wake Forest will be playing only its 11th game of the season, tied with Duke and Florida State for the fewest in the ACC while NC State will be playing its 12th game of the season. After playing three games in eight days to start the season, this will be NC State's 9th game in the last 55 days.
- Senior guard Braxton Beverly was red-hot against the Demon Deacons last season. In two games against Wake Forest, the Hazard, Ky., native shot 8-of-9 from three-point range and had a 15-point and 16-point outing in two NC State wins. In six games against Wake Forest for his career, Beverly is 16-of-31 (51.6%) from three-point range.
- Senior forward D.J. Funderburk shot 13-of-21 (61.9%) and averaged 15.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game against Wake Forest last season. In his career against Wake Forest, Funderburk has also registered a career-high four blocks against WF on 2/24/19 and tied his career-high in steals with three against the Demon Deacons on 1/15/19.
- NC State continues to lead the ACC in steals (9.36), forcing turnovers (17.36) and turnover margin (+4.9), but the Pack has fallen to 14th in field goal percentage defense at 47.3%. In its last two games, NC State's opponents Florida State and North Carolina combined to shoot 78-of-126 (61.9%) from the field. Prior to those two games, the highest field goal percentage NC State had allowed this season was 47.7% by Charleston Southern in the season-opener on Nov. 25.
- Wake Forest has hit 28 three-pointers in the last two games and has four games this season with double-digit three-pointers made. NC State has hit double-digit three-pointers in three games and has only allowed two opponents to make double-digit three-pointers this season.
- The Demon Deacons are a perimeter-oriented team and do not have a traditional shot blocker in the middle of its defense like NC State does with Manny Bates. Bates leads the ACC with 34 blocks in 10 games this season. Wake Forest as a team has 17 blocks in 10 games this season.

NC State - Wake Forest Series
- Wednesday marks the 253rd all-time meeting between the two programs.
- NC State leads the all-time series, 146-106. The Pack has a 101-55 advantage over the Demon Deacons in games played in Raleigh, including a 16-5 record against WFU in PNC Arena.
- Kevin Keatts is 5-1 against Wake Forest, including 3-0 inside PNC Arena.

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Players Mentioned

Manny Bates

Braxton Beverly

Devon Daniels

D.J. Funderburk

Jericole Hellems