Pack Closes Regular Season at Pitt

The CW

NC State Game Notes | Pitt Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team finishes the regular season Saturday night with a trip to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers at Petersen Events Center.

Tipoff at Pitt is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. and the game will be televised on The CW. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- NC State dropped a 79-64 decision to ninth-ranked Duke on Monday night. The two teams exchanged the lead 11 times in the first 28 minutes of the game, but after the Pack went ahead 46-45 with 12:10 remaining, the Blue Devils responded with a 19-6 run to take a 12-point lead with 7:46 to go. NC State got within seven with five minutes to play, but a 7-0 Duke run doubled the Blue Devils advantage and put the game out of reach.
- DJ Burns, Jr., had his best game of the 2023-24 season, finishing with a season-high 27 points against Duke. The graduate forward went 12-of-19 from the field and also passed out a team-high four assists. The 27-point outing was the first game over 20 points this season for Burns. It's the fourth time he's led the team in scoring this season and ninth time he's led the team in assists.
- Junior forward Mohamed Diarra was the only other NC State player to reach double figures on Monday, finishing with 10 points and a game-high seven rebounds. He has now led the Pack in rebounding in six of the last seven games and 10 of the last 14 overall. In the last seven games, Diarra is averaging just shy of a double-double with averages of 9.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. He is shooting 24-of-44 (54.5%) from the field, including 10-of-21 (47.6%) from three-point range. He ranks seventh in conference action, averaging 8.0 rebounds per game in 19 ACC contests.
- Jayden Taylor was held to just two points on Saturday, the first time since moving out of the starting lineup that he did not score in double figures. Taylor started the first 24 games of the season, but in his final six starts he averaged just 7.1 points per game and was shooting just 33.3 percent from the field, including 28.1 percent from three-point range (9-of-32). In the six games since moving to the bench, Taylor is averaging 14.2 points per game and shooting 53.5 percent (23-of-43) from the field and 54.7 percent from three-point range (13-of-24).

Saturday Storylines
- DJ Horne averaged 24.1 points per game in the month of February. He was limited to just eight points in Monday's loss to Duke. It was only the third time in 19 ACC contests that Horne was limited to single digits scoring. In the last two games (at UNC and vs. Duke), Horne has only attempted five three-pointers. From Jan. 20 to Feb. 27 (11 games), Horne attempted at least six three-pointers in all of those games before the last two outings.
- DJ Horne enters Saturday night just 37 points shy of 2,000 for his career. Only 28 active NCAA DI players have 2,000 career points, including just two ACC players (UNC's Armando Bacot and Clemson's Joe Girard).
- Mohamed Diarra has made a three-pointer in six of the last seven games and is 10-of-21 (47.6%) from downtown in the last seven games. In the first 23 games of the season, Diarra only made five three-pointers and only attempted 21 three-pointers total in that span.
- NC State has had more turnovers than its opponents in three consecutive games. The Pack has been one of the nation's best in turnover margin under head coach Kevin Keatts. Last season, NC State ranked 15th in the NCAA in turnover margin and the Pack still ranks 23rd this season in turnover margin, but has a -9 turnover margin in the last three games. This season, NC State is 15-5 when it has fewer turnovers than its opponent, but is 2-8 when it has the same number or more turnovers than its opponent.
- Hitting the offensive glass: NC State is averaging 12.8 offensive rebounds per game in its last five games. Ben Middlebrooks has grabbed 17 offensive rebounds (3.4 per game) during that stretch. NC State is averaging 13.8 second chance points per game over its last five outings.

NC State Series with Pitt
- Saturday is the 27th all-time meeting all-time between NC State and Pitt. NC State leads the all-time series, 21-5.
- Kevin Keatts is 7-3 against Pitt as head coach of the Pack, including a 3-1 mark against the Panthers in games played at Petersen Events Center.

Earlier Meeting with Pitt
- Pitt beat NC State, 67-64, on Feb. 7 to snap NC State's two-game win streak.
- Pitt jumped out to an early lead, leading by as many as 11 points in the first half before the Pack battled back to tie the game at 30. The Panthers scored the final eight points of the opening half to take a 38-30 lead into halftime. Pitt eventually extended the lead to 13 points early in the second half when NC State once again battled back, eventually tying the game at 56 with 7:40 to play and took its first lead of the game since it was 5-3 on a DJ Burns, Jr., lay-up with 6:30 to go. The Panthers though made enough stops late to push past the Pack, 67-64.
- The Wolfpack was led by DJ Horne who posted a game high 25 points. DJ Burns, Jr. added a then season-best 19 points.
- The Pack finished the game shooting a higher field goal percentage, higher three-point field goal percentage and made more field goals and three-point field goals than the Panthers, while also committing four less turnovers than Pitt, but the Panthers finished the game 18-of-20 from the foul line and NC State was a season-worst 40 percent (6-of-15) from the charity stripe.

Players Mentioned

DJ Burns, Jr.

Mohamed Diarra

DJ Horne

Ben Middlebrooks

Jayden Taylor

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