Pack Hosts Nebraska Wednesday in Big-Ten ACC Challenge

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RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team hosts Nebraska Wednesday night inside PNC Arena in the annual Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

The game will tipoff at 7:15 and be televised on ESPNU. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- NC State had its best performance from start-to-finish on Saturday afternoon as it defeated Louisiana Tech, 90-81. The Pack scored a season-high 90 points in the contest, tied its season-high with 11 three-pointers and shot a season-best 51.6 percent from the field.
- Senior forward Jericole Hellems led NC State with a career-high 31 points. The Saint Louis native hit a career-best six three-pointers as he is the first Pack player since Torin Dorn on 3/27/19 to score over 30 points in a game.
- Sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona had the best game of his young career, scoring 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting and added six blocks. Both totals were career-highs. Entering the game against the Bulldogs, Dowuona had never made more than one field goal in a game in his Pack career, but hit three buckets in the first three minutes of the game and in 14 career games only had registered seven blocks before exploding for six on Saturday.
- Redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron scored 12 points and seven rebounds which were both season-lows as he failed to register a double-double for only the second time this season. Seabron did add career-bests in assists (5) and steals (5) against La Tech. He again led NC State in rebounding and had his led the Pack in rebounding in all six games this season.

Noting Nebraska
- Fred Hoiberg is in his third season as head coach of the Husker program. Nebraska returns three starters and seven letterwinners while welcoming a consensus top-20 recruiting class which features five-star recruit Bryce McGowens
- McGowens has already won Big Ten Freshman of the Week two times this season. He leads all Big Ten freshman in scoring (17.7 ppg) and ranks second in rebounding (6.9 rpg), as he paces the Huskers in both categories.
- The Huskers have led the Big Ten in pace in each of the last two seasons, ranking 16th nationally by KenPom in 2019-20 and 35th in 2020-21. NU has been the only Big Ten team to rank in the top-50 nationally in each of the past two seasons.

Wednesday Storylines
- The Pack has won 27 consecutive regular season home games against non-conference opponents and has a 34-1 record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games under Kevin Keatts.
- NC State has an 8-12 record all-time in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Head Coach Kevin Keatts is 2-1 in the challenge, winning at home over Penn State (2017) and Wisconsin (2019). Last season's game at Michigan was canceled because of NC State being on a COVID-pause.
- A win would give the Pack a two-game win streak in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge for only the second time. NC State won its challenge games in 1999 and 2000 (the first two years of the challenge's existence) but has never won consecutive games in the challenge since.
- NC State redshirt senior guard Thomas Allen played for Nebraska as a freshman and sophomore. As a sophomore at Nebraska, he started 25 of 29 games for the Huskers and averaged 8.7 per game on 44 percent shooting, including 36 percent from three-point range.
- NC State ranks second in the ACC and 14th in the country in turnovers per game, averaging to turn it over just 9.5 times an outing. The Pack has had single digit turnovers in four of six games this season. Point guard Cam Hayes only has four turnovers this season and is averaging to commit one turnover every 38.4 minutes of action this season. The guards on NC State's roster combine to have a 1.91 assist-to-turnover ratio through six games this season (67 assists-to-35 turnovers). Nebraska ranks second in the Big Ten and averages to force 16.29 turnovers per game this season.
- Nebraska has had fewer turnovers than its opponents in every game this season and ranks 21st in the NCAA in turnover margin at +5.9. The Pack is 5-0 this season when it has fewer turnovers than its opponents and ranks 49th in the NCAA in turnover margin at +4.2. In the Kevin Keatts era, NC State is 70-24 (74.5%) when it has the same or fewer turnovers than its opponent and just 14-24 when it has more turnovers than its opponent.
- NC State is averaging 15.8 points a game off opponent turnovers and has outscored its opponents by 36 points this season in points off turnovers. The Pack has won 12 straight games when it outscores its opponents in points off turnovers. Nebraska is averaging 22.3 points per game off its opponents' turnovers and has had more points off turnovers than its opponents in every game this season.
- Find bench scoring: Under Kevin Keatts, NC State has routinely outscored its opponent's bench. Entering this season, NC State had outscored the opponent's bench by 850 points in the Keatts era. Entering Wednesday night's game, NC State has been outscored by 57 points in bench points this season. Freshman guard Terquavion Smith has come off-the-bench in every game this season and is averaging 9.8 points per game. The rest of NC State's bench has combined to score 44 points in six games. attempts
- NC State has made a living at the free throw line this season. The Pack is averaging 24.5 free throw attempts per game which ranks as the second-most in the ACC. For the season, NC State has made the same number of free throws (107) that its opponents have attempted. Nebraska enters the game averaging 24.3 free throw per game and leads the Big Ten in total free throw attempts and total free throw makes.

NC State - Nebraska Series
- Wednesday marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
- Nebraska is the only current Big Ten school NC State has never played.
- NC State is 116-103 against current Big Ten members (151 of those games are against former ACC member Maryland. Maryland leads the series with NC State 77-74.)

Pack Hosts Nebraska Wednesday in Big-Ten ACC Challenge

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Players Mentioned

Thomas Allen

Torin Dorn

Ebenezer Dowuona

Cam Hayes

Jericole Hellems

Dereon Seabron

Terquavion Smith