Dennis Smith and NC State handle McNeese State with ease as Pack wins 89-57

No problems at all here.

NC State scored only 12 points over the final 11 minutes of the game Thursday night and still won by 32, which pretty well sums up the lopsided nature of this matchup with McNeese State. Dennis Smith led the Wolfpack with 23 points as the Pack cruised to an 89-57 victory.

Four Factors	NC State	McNeese
eFG%	55.3	36.5
Turnover Rate	21.7	17.6
Off Reb Rate	51.4	21.3
FT Rate	28.8	28.6

	Pts	Poss	OFF_EFF	DEF_EFF
McNeese	57	74	77.2	120.6
NC State	89	74	120.6	77.2

NC State had this one well in hand before 10 minutes were gone in the first half and pushed the lead to almost 40 points before the midway point of the second half. That was where Mark Gottfried decided he’d seen enough from his starters and gave his bench guys some extended run.

Ten Wolfpack players played at least 13 minutes in the contest, and Dennis Smith sat out the final 12 minutes and change. Smith, Torin Dorn, Terry Henderson, and Abdul-Malik Abu got plenty of rest, as none played more than 25 minutes. Actually, nobody on the team played more than 25 minutes, as the Gott Man liberally spread playing time around.

That’s about the only way a game like this one is useful—it allows your inexperienced guys more time than they’d get under normal circumstances. In this case it came at the expense of the Pack’s offensive execution, but hey, you can’t have everything.

McNeese State played true to form, making only 14 of 37 two-point attempts and six of 26 threes. The Cowboys also got demolished on the glass at both ends of the floor. Poor shooting, awful rebounding—these were two things we knew coming in were likely to doom McNeese very quickly and that’s exactly what happened.

The Pack will take this win into a holiday break, returning to action against Rider on Wednesday.

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