Pack Heads to 20th-ranked Auburn for ACC/SEC Men's Basketball Challenge

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NC State Game Notes | Auburn Game Notes

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team plays in the ACC-SEC Challenge Wednesday at 20^th-ranked Auburn.

Tipoff inside Neville Arena is scheduled for 9:20 p.m. ET and the game will be televised on ESPN. NC State fans can also listen to Matt Chazanow and Chucky Brown call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

Pack Notes
- The Pack dropped its final game at the Maui Invitational, falling to Texas, 102-97, on Wednesday. NC State shot 53.1 percent from the field and scored 60 points in the second half, but the Longhorns shot 55.8 percent, including 50 percent from three-point range on 16 made three-pointers and made 28 of its 33 free throw attempts.
- Ven-Allen Lubin finished two points shy of a career-high against Texas, scoring 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He added nine rebounds, six offensively, in the loss. In three games at Maui, Lubin averaged 16.7 points on 62.5 percent shooting and 10.0 rebounds per game. He led all players in Maui in both offensive rebounds (14) and total rebounds.
- After a relatively slow start to the season, Lubin averaged just 8.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in the Pack's first three games this season, the Orlando Fla., native has nearly doubled his output in the last four games. Starting with the VCU game on Nov. 17, Lubin has averaged 15.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in the Pack's last four contests. He is shooting 64.7 percent from the field this season (33-of-51) - a mark that would lead the ACC but he falls just short of the 5 made field goals per game average to qualify - and has shot over 50 percent in each game this season.
- Quadir Copeland scored a career-high 28 points in the loss to Texas. Like Lubin, he also shot 10-of-14 from the field against Texas. Copeland scored 21 of his career-best 28 in the second half against the Longhorns. He also led the Pack with six assists against Texas and finished Maui with 15 assists and a 1.88 assist-to-turnover ratio.
- Paul McNeil, Jr., scored 20 points in the loss to Texas. He, Copeland and Lubin are the first trio of NC State teammates to all score 20 or more points in the same game in at least 21 years.
- Through the month of November, NC State's offense ranks 13th in the NCAA in scoring offense (93.6 points per game). The Pack ranks 23rd in field goal percentage at 51.7 percent and seventh in the three-point percentage at 42.2 percent. NC State 's 11.3 three-pointers made per game ranks 18th in the NCAA.
The Pack's three-point prowess has been well chronicled, but NC State's effectiveness on the "easy ones" is what helps the offense hum. Through seven games, the Pack is shooting 59.1 percent (140-of-237) on two-point field goals.

Wednesday Storylines
- NC State is 40th in the first NET rankings of the 2025-26 season which were released on Dec. 1. Through the games of November, NC State has faced the toughest non-conference schedule of any ACC team. Four of the Pack's first seven games this season are currently Q1 or Q2 games. NC State still has six non-conference games remaining and as of the current NET rankings will play two more Q1 games (Wednesday at Auburn and Dec. 13 vs. Kansas) and one more Q2 game (neutral site game vs. Ole Miss). While its currently a Q3 game, the Pack also will face Liberty, the preseason Conference USA favorite, on Dec. 10 in Raleigh.
- Wednesday marks the first road game of the season for NC State. The Pack did not win a road game last season and you have to go back to a 78-77 win at Clemson on Feb. 17, 2024 for NC State's last win on an opponent's home floor. NC State's last non-conference road win was Dec. 15, 2019 at UNCG. Markell Johnson made a halfcourt buzzer-beater to send the Pack to an 80-77 win over the Spartans that day. Despite that game being six years ago, NC State has only played four non-conference road games since that game at UNCG (at Auburn four days later, at Saint Louis in December 2020, at Ole Miss in December 2023 and at Kansas in December 2024).
- NC State's Darrion Williams and Auburn's Kevin Overton were teammates at Texas Tech last season on a team that advanced to the Elite Eight.
- Pack's starting unit is giving NC State a lethal offensive punch through the first seven games. NC State's starting lineup (Quadir Copeland, Tre Holloman, Ven-Allen Lubin Paul McNeil, Jr., and Darrion Williams) are combining to average 69.8 points per game and shooting an efficient 54.9 percent (162-of-295) from the field, including 48.7 percent (58-of-119) from three-point range. Four of the Pack's starters are shooting 53.5 percent or better from the field.
- Second Half Pack: NC State has gone to another level in the final 20 minutes offensively this season. So far in the second half this season, NC State has scored 370 points (52.9 second half points average) and is shooting 56.9 percent, including 47.0 percent (47-of-100) from three-point range. NC State is shooting 66.3 percent (69-of-104) on two-point field goals in the second half this season. The Pack's starting lineup is combining to shoot 62.4 percent from the field in the second half this season, including 55.9 percent (33-of-59) from three-point range.
- NC State ranks third in the ACC and 38th in the NCAA in fast break points with an average of 17.1 per game. In the Pack's five wins this season it is averaging 21.2 fast break points, but had just 14 fast break points combined (7.0 per game) in its two losses.
- Watch the foul trouble - NC State is last in the ACC and 327th in the NCAA in fouls, averaging to be called for 20.7 fouls per game. In the Maui Invitational last week, NC State was called for 76 fouls (25.3 per game average) and had six players foul out.
- NC State scored a season-high 46 paint points last Wednesday against Texas and outscored the Longhorns by 26 points in the paint. For the season, NC State is averaging 35.1 points per game and only once this season (vs. Seton Hall) has the Pack been outscored in the paint.
- Get Darrion Williams back on track. Williams wasn't necessarily bad in Maui - he averaged 12.7 points per game and shot 45.2 percent from the field in NC State's three games in Hawaii - but the Preseason ACC Player of the Year fouled out in two of the games and his scoring and field goal percentage were both much lower than what he averaged in the first four games of the season (23.3 points per game on 61.1 percent shooting).

NC State series with Auburn
- Wednesday marks the 11th game between the two programs. NC State leads the all-time series, 6-4.
- The series dates back 100 years to the 1925-26 season when the programs first met. NC State won both meetings that season, defeating Auburn, 43-36, in Raleigh during the regular season and then again, 32-26, in the Southern Conference Tournament in Atlanta.
- The Pack's first-ever trip to Auburn was not a memorable for NC State. The Tigers defeated NC State, 98-51 and Auburn's John Mengelt scored 45 points in Auburn's win on Dec. 5, 1970. Mengelt's 45 points still remains as the single game opponent scoring record.
- Last Meeting (December 19, 2019): 12th-ranked Auburn beat NC State, 79-73, to complete a two-game home-and-home series. The Pack took a 64-62 lead with 5:23 remaining in the game on a Braxton Beverly lay-up, but went scoreless for the next four minutes as Auburn went on a 10-0 run to take control of the game. The teams combined to be called for 50 fouls and Auburn finished the game with 36 free throw attempts. C.J. Bryce led the Pack with 21 points and 11 rebounds and Markell Johnson also finished with a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists.

Pack Heads to 20th-ranked Auburn for ACC/SEC Men's Basketball Challenge

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Players Mentioned

Quadir Copeland

Tre Holloman

Ven-Allen Lubin

Paul McNeil, Jr.

Darrion Williams

North Carolina State University Athletics