Quadir Copeland and Paul McNeil Jr. both scored 18 points to lead another impressive offensive performance for North Carolina State in a 94-70 victory over visiting UAB Friday night in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Darrion Williams and Tre Hollomon each had 14 points and the Wolfpack (2-0) shot 54.1 percent from the field, scoring more than 40 points in each half.
Jacob Meyer’s 15 points paced UAB (1-1), while Chance Westry produced 14 points and Daniel Rivera had 12. The Blazers shot 40.8 percent from the field in their first road outing of the season.
In addition to their defense, the Blazers were undone by shooting 4 of 25 (16%) on 3-point attempts – with two of the connections coming late in the game.
NC State recovered from its shooting woes after missing its first eight shots from beyond the 3-point arc. The Wolfpack finished 10 of 30 from 3, with McNeil making three. It was one game after tying the program record by making 19 3-pointers (on 40 attempts) in a 114-66 home win over North Carolina Central on Monday night.
Copeland, who shared team honors with Hollomon with five assists, finished 5 of 7 from the field and McNeil made six of his 11 shots. Copeland had a crowd-pleasing dunk in the final minute of the first half.
The Wolfpack led 41-33 at halftime, although at the time first-year NC State coach Will Wade was assessed a technical foul for the second straight game for his conduct on the bench.
Musa Sagnia finished with 10 rebounds, a bench record for NC State.
UAB even struggled to shoot free throws, going 8 of 14. Both teams ended up with 14 turnovers, but NC State did a much better job converting takeaway points collected (21-16).
–Field level media
