NC State Outclasses Virginia Tech, Pushes Win Streak to Six
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RALEIGH — After never stringing together more than four wins in the non-conference portion of the schedule, NC State head coach Will Wade feared his team would need to grind out smaller win streaks to earn a bid in the NCAA Tournament. Saturday's 82-73 victory over Virginia Tech pushed the Wolfpack's latest streak to six wins.
Wade's concerns about the team's ability to string together wins seem to be a thing of the past, just as the team's struggles in noon start games are. Despite one of the stars struggling, NC State was able to ride some steady defense and make enough shots to knock out the desperate Hokies, a team falling out of the bubble in a hurry.
Noon start problems a thing of the past?
After several sloppy and slow starts in games tipping off in the noon window over the course of the season, NC State appears to be fully removed from those issues. The Wolfpack came out with defensive ferocity and made the right decisions, for the most part, in the first 10 minutes of the game, surging with a 14-1 run over a four-plus-minute stretch.
Turnovers were a major issue for the Hokies in the period between the first two media timeouts. Virginia Tech racked up nine first-half turnovers, which the Wolfpack took advantage of. Senior guard Tre Holloman had his shot working, burying a pair of step-backs, including one from 3-point range, in the opening 10 minutes.
After going down as many as 13, Virginia Tech was able to battle back before the end of the first half and force some Wolfpack turnovers. While the Hokies didn’t even things out, they did make it more of a game than it appeared to be. To make matters worse for NC State, its offense went ice cold for a significant chunk of the final 10 minutes of the half.
After a scoring drought of nearly four minutes, the Wolfpack kicked it back into gear for the final six minutes of the game, finishing the half on a 12-3 run. That last surge pushed the lead back to 12, with Quadir Copeland leading the way with nine first-half points, six assists and three steals.
Applying paint pressure
Despite Virginia Tech boasting a handful of strong and tall forwards and guards, the Wolfpack dominated the inside throughout the first half and carried that pressure into the final 20 minutes. With Copeland’s ability to collapse the defense and strong finishing from senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin, NC State outscored Virginia Tech 20-8 in the paint in the first half.
The Pack made seven of its first 11 layups, while the Hokies missed seven of their first 11. That success inside was an early separator that Wade looked to leverage in the second half. State ultimately finished the game with 38 paint points, while Virginia Tech was able to catch up in the second half, ending with 36.
Diesel throws it DOWN off the lob from Tre. pic.twitter.com/EVSJ8bMxTo
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) February 7, 2026
It was important in a game that the torrid 3-point shooting of the Wolfpack never showed up in. While NC State finished the game shooting 9-for-21 from beyond the arc, it didn’t quite reach the lofty standards it set for itself in the wins over Wake Forest and SMU over the last week. That’s where the work inside played such an important role.
Lubin was the driving force inside offensively, finishing with 11 points and seven rebounds. He also added a key block at the end of the first half. Freshman big Musa Sagnia played 13 minutes, helping NC State stay attached in the rebound battle.
Overcoming sloppiness
Leaving Tre open: a mistake. pic.twitter.com/2fBCpI9Uis
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) February 7, 2026
Virginia Tech was able to make the game somewhat disjointed, playing things from media timeout to media timeout and getting to the free-throw line with more success in the second half. There were 10 fouls between the two teams in the first eight-plus minutes of the second half, while the Wolfpack dealt with shooting turnovers and regular ones, too.
The Hokies cut things back to three just before the 10-minute mark as junior guard Jaden Schutt started heating up. He finished with 11 points, making four shots from beyond the arc. The whistles started to rack up against NC State, getting Virginia Tech into the bonus with more than 10 minutes to play.
Luckily for the Pack, Paul McNeil found his shooting stroke in the final 10 minutes of the game, burying a pair of contested 3-pointers to push the Wolfpack’s lead back up to 12 points at the under-eight media timeout. The sharpshooter scored 13 of his 21 points in the second half.
Filling in the blanks and final word
Leaving Tre open: a mistake. pic.twitter.com/2fBCpI9Uis
— NC State Men's Basketball (@PackMensBball) February 7, 2026
With Darrion Williams struggling to score, NC State leaned on the others and a strong performance from Copeland. The senior point guard finished the game with 21 points, 10 assists, three rebounds and five steals, scoring his 1,000th career point in the game. Holloman chipped in a quality 16 points of his own, while freshman guard Matt Able added another sevn off the bench.
The latest Wolfpack win pushed the team's record to 18-6 overall and 9-2 in ACC play, placing it squarely in the mix for a spot in the top four of the ACC standings ahead of a brutal stretch against the conference's best teams. That grind begins on Monday, as the Pack heads to Louisville to take on No. 24 Louisville.
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Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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