Pack Hosts Abilene Christian Friday Night at PNC Arena

Friday, November 10

Raleigh, NC

7 PM

NC State

Abilene Christian

Pack Hosts Abilene Christian Friday Night at PNC Arena

11/9/2023 2:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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NC State opened season Monday with a 72-59 win over The Citadel

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NC State Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team is back in action Friday night when it hosts Abilene Christian at PNC Arena.

Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m., with Andrew Sanders and former Pack sharpshooter Scott Wood calling the action on ACC Network Extra.

NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Tracks
- NC State opened its 114th season of basketball Monday evening with a 72-59 win over The Citadel.
- With the win, the Pack has now won 29 of its last 30 season-openers against non-conference opponents.
- NC State was led in the game by graduate forward Dj Burns Jr., who scored a game-high 16 points. Burns made his first six field goal attempts on his way to 8-of-11 shooting from the field. The Rock Hill., S.C., led the Pack and ranked fourth in the ACC in field goal percentage last season at 56.1 percent. In 35 career games in an NC State uniform, Burns has now shot better than 50 percent from the field 25 times. Monday marked the 19th time in 35 games that Burns has had double-digit field goal attempts. He has shot 50 percent or better 16 times in those 19 games when he has 10 or more field goal attempts.
- Junior forward Mohamed Diarra made an immediate impact in his program debut on Monday as the France native recorded his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and a career-high tying 14 rebounds. Diarra also tied his career-high with three blocks. The 14 rebounds are the most by an NC State player since Dereon Seabron had 19 in the Pack's four overtime win over Nebraska on Dec. 1, 2021. It's the most rebounds in regulation by an NC State player since Manny Bates had 14 rebounds at Syracuse on Jan. 31, 2021.

Friday Storylines
- NC State has a 44-2 (.957) record against non-conference opponents in regular season home games under head coach Kevin Keatts.
- Abilene Christian opened its season Monday night by traveling up to Stillwater, Okla., and knocking off Oklahoma State, 64-59. ACU never trailed again after an early 4-2 deficit, leading by 11 at the half and upping the lead to 18 in the second half before surviving a late OSU comeback.
- Right where it left off: After setting a program record last season for fewest turnovers in a season and ranking seventh in the NCAA with an average of just 9.4 turnovers per game, NC State only had nine turnovers in Monday's season-opening win over The Citadel.
- Pack showing the makings of a deeper team: Last season, NC State had two players rank in the top-seven of the ACC in minutes played (Jarkel Joiner - 3rd at 35.8 and Casey Morsell - 7th at 35.0). In addition, Terquavion Smith averaged to play 33.6 minutes per game. In the opener on Monday night, DJ Horne played the most minutes, clocking in for 28:56 of game action. Only one game last season did NC State not have a single player go over 30 minutes and that was in the win over FIU where the Pack opened up a 25-point halftime lead and led by as many as 39 points.
- Graduate guard Michael O'Connell tied his career-high with four three-pointers in Monday's win over The Citadel. He finished 4-of-5 from three-point range. The Mineola, N.Y., native finished with 14 points and a team-high seven assists with zero turnovers in 25 minutes off the bench.
- Spreading the wealth: NC State passed out 19 assists with eight players recording at least one assist. Of those eight players, five had multiple assists. Last season, NC State only had one game where it had eight different players register an assist and only one game where five different players had multiple assists.

NC State Series with Abilene Christian
- Friday's game will be the first ever meeting between the two programs.
- The Pack has only played one other program from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) in the team's history. NC State beat UT Rio Grande Valley (named UT Pan American when NC State played them), 75-25, on Jan. 27, 1997.