Pack Welcomes Colgate To PNC Arena Saturday Afternoon

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RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team (1-0) returns to action Saturday afternoon when it hosts Colgate (1-0) inside PNC Arena.

Tipoff is scheduled for 2 pm and the game will be shown on ACC Network Extra. Fans can also listen to Andrew Sanders and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- NC State opened its 112th season of basketball Tuesday evening with an 88-70 win over Bucknell.
- The Pack was led by fantastic performances by Jericole Hellems, Dereon Seabron and Terquavion Smith.
- Hellems led the team with 22 points, two off of his career-high.
            - Seabron posted his second career double-double with a career-high 18 points and 12 rebounds
            - Smith had the best freshman-debut since C.J. Leslie in 2010 with 20 points and four steals. Smith's 20 points are the fifth-highest scoring debut by a freshman in program history.
- The win did prove costly though as junior forward Manny Bates was lost for the season after suffering a right shoulder dislocation 57 seconds into the contest. Bates had the ACC in blocked shots as a freshman and sophmore and set the program's single-season field goal percentage last season by shooting 64.1% from the field.
- The Pack has won 24 consecutive regular season home games against non-conference opponents and has a 31-1 record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games under Kevin Keatts.
- NC State finished last season with a 14-11 (9-8 ACC) record. The Pack lost leading scorer Devon Daniels to a torn ACL on Jan. 27, but regrouped to win its final five ACC road games to finish with a winning record in league play for the fourth consecutive season under Kevin Keatts.

Noting Colgate
- Colgate opened the season Tuesday night with a 65-58 home win over Northeastern. The Raiders trailed 25-23 at halftime, but pull away in the second half, leading by as many as 14 points.
- Senior guard Nelly Cummings scored 17 of his career-high 25 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range to lead the Raiders.
- Colgate returns four starters from last year's Patriot League championship team that finished 14-2 overall and 11-1 against conference foes. The Raiders in all return seven of their top eight scorers from last season.
- In the NCAA Tournament last season, Colgate led three-seed Arkansas by 14 points in the first half and the game was tied with eight minutes to go before the Razorbacks pulled away. Arkansas ended up going all the way to the Elite 8 before losing to eventual National Champion, Baylor.

Saturday Storylines
- The Pack has won 24 consecutive regular season home games against non-conference opponents and has a 31-1 record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games under Kevin Keatts.
- A big reason for this success is NC State's ability to turn its opponent over. In home games against non-conference opponents, NC State is averaging to force 19 turnovers per game and has nearly a +7 turnover margin. The Pack is also averaging 9.3 steals per game in home games against non-conference opponents.
- Against Bucknell on Tuesday, the script played out as described above. NC State forced the Bison into 17 turnovers and the Pack finished with 13 steals and had a +9 turnover margin.
- Bucknell made nine three-pointers on Tuesday night, but it took 31 attempts for a three-point shooting percentage of 29 percent. Last season, Colgate ranked third in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at 40.3 percent and was 12th in the NCAA in overall field goal percentage at 49.4 percent. The Raiders' top-scorer on Tuesday night, Nelly Cummings, shot 5-of-6 from three-point range in the win.
- NC State forced 17 Bucknell turnovers in Tuesday's win. Last season when NC State forced an opponent into 15 or more turnovers the Pack was 10-1. When its opponent had less than 15 turnovers, NC State was 4-10. In the Kevin Keatts era, NC State is now 48-15 (76.2%) when it forces an opponent into 15 or more turnovers.
- Manny Bates injury means the Pack only has three players on its team that are 6'9" or taller available this year. Prior to this season, that trio (Ebenezer Dowuona, Jaylon Gibson and Ernest Ross) had played a combined 128 minutes of college basketball with zero starts. Dowuona, Gibson and Ross (playing in his first collegiate game) all played the most minutes they've ever played in a college game on a Tuesday night. Dowuona had more rebounds Tuesday (9) than he did all of last season (8).

NC State - Colgate Series
- Saturday will mark the second meeting all-time between the two programs.
- NC State won the only previous meeting, 85-76, on Dec. 30, 1950.
- That NC State team went 30-7 and won the regular season and tournament championship in the Southern Conference. Fun fact for the 1950-51 team, in that era teams were allowed to play in both the NIT and the NCAA Tournament. The NIT was a 12-team tournament and the NCAA Tournament was a 16-team tournament played the week after the NIT. NC State was one of four teams in the country to be invited to play in both.

Pack Welcomes Colgate To PNC Arena Saturday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Manny Bates

Devon Daniels

Ebenezer Dowuona

Jaylon Gibson

Jericole Hellems

Ernest Ross

Dereon Seabron

Terquavion Smith