Three Stars From NC State’s Gritty Road Win

PITTSBURGH — NC State men's basketball swept through the week with another pair of road wins, recovering nicely from a Georgia Tech loss that caused some angst for head coach Will Wade and fans of the program. It finished the week with a gritty 81-72 win over the Pittsburgh Panthers, overcoming similar issues to the ones that sunk the team a week earlier.

With Darrion Williams wading into foul trouble waters early in the game, the Wolfpack leaned on three different faces to outpace the Panthers in their own building. Who were the three stars of the game for NC State on Saturday?

Copeland drives the bus

With Williams out of the fold for a significant portion of the game, senior guard Quadir Copeland was in charge of the offense more than Wade hoped. He handled the increased responsibility well, scoring 20 points and dishing out nine assists in the win. He turned the ball over just three times, while the team gave it away eight times total. His usage rate was over 30%.

"We needed him. His usage rate was a little high because Darrion was in foul trouble," Wade said. "That wasn't really the plan, but we had to use him quite a bit and he did a really nice job. There were a couple of ill-advised shots, but for the most part, he was really good."

Clutch shooting from P2

NC State made just seven of its 20 attempts from 3-point range. Five of those seven makes came from sophomore guard Paul McNeil. The Wolfpack's sharpshooter finished with 15 points in the win, burying 5-of-9 shots from downtown. McNeil added a pair of rebounds and steals for the Pack across 32 minutes of work.

The sophomore guard pushed a streak of multiple 3-pointers made to nine games in a row. McNeil averaged 17.3 points per game over that stretch, shooting a blistering 47.6% from 3-point range. Impressive numbers aside, he buried two of the most important shots of the game to put the Wolfpack up six late in the second half. Pitt never recovered from that barrage.

Lubin keeps rolling

It was always going to be difficult for senior forward Ven-Allen Lubin to follow up his dominant performance from earlier in the week against Clemson with a better one, but he came very close in the win over the Panthers. Lubin struggled to secure rebounds against a relentless Pitt offense in the first half, but he cleaned things up when it mattered.

The Wolfpack's rock-solid big man finished with his fifth double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and hauling in 12 rebounds. 12 of those points and seven of the rebounds came in the final 20 minutes. He also continued shooting the ball well from the free-throw line, making 8-of-9 attempts.

Want more NC State basketball content throughout the year? Follow @WolfpackOnSI and @SennettTucker on X (Twitter) and never miss another breaking news story again.

Please let us know your thoughts when you like our Facebook page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE