NC State Hangs Banner, Earns First Win Of Season

RALEIGH – On a banner night at the Lenovo Center, NC State opened the 2024-25 season with a resounding 97-66 win over USC Upstate on Monday night.

The Pack started the night by unveiling two banners in the rafters of the arena, commemorating last season’s ACC Championship and Final Four berth.

After the pregame festivities it didn’t take long for this year’s version of the NC State basketball team to put its stamp on the night.

The Pack broke open a close contest with a 15-0 spring midway through the first half and never looked back in winning its home-opener against a non-conference opponent for the 30th time in the last 31 seasons.

Senior Breon Pass scored a career-high 14 points to tie for team-high honors with NC State newcomer Marcus Hill.

Pass was 5-of-8 from the field and added two assists and two rebounds in the win.

Hill in his debut for the Pack, scored 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Ben Middlebrooks posted his second career double-double with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds while also blocking a career-high four shots.

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield also reached double figures for the Pack with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Overall, all 11 scholarship players that were available for NC State on Monday scored and eight NC State players scored at least eight points in the game.

NC State finished the game with 47 bench points, the fourth-most bench points in the Kevin Keatts era.

The first eight minutes of the game went back-and-forth as the teams exchanged the lead four times, but a 15-0 run pushed the Pack’s lead to 17, 31-14, with a little under eight minutes to play in the opening period.

The Spartans would make a mini-push to cut NC State’s lead to eight with 5:30 to play in the opening 20 minutes, but another Pack run doubled its lead back to 16 and NC State would eventually take a 50-35 lead into the halftime locker room.

In the second half, USC Upstate would get within 13, but a 10-0 run by the Pack pushed the lead to 23 points and the Spartans never got closer than 19 points the rest of the way.

The Pack finished the game with a 54-34 advantage in points in the paint and a 36-7 advantage in fast break points while also outscoring the Spartans, 27-4, in points off turnovers.

Pack is back in action Friday when it hosts Presbyterian at the Lenovo Center. Tipoff against the Blue Hose is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.