Pack Starts Three-Game Road Stretch with trip to No. 8 Virginia

ACC Network | WatchESPN

The 22^nd-ranked NC State men’s basketball team (19-5, 9-4 ACC) starts a three gam road stretch in its schedule with a trip to eighth-ranked Virginia (17-4, 9-3 ACC) Tuesday evening.

Tipoff at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville is scheduled for 9 p.m., and the game will be televised on the ACC Network. NC State fans can also listen to Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes call the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network.

 

Pack Tracks

– NC State won its fourth straight game – and eighth in its last nine outings – with a 72-64 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon. The Pack trailed by three, 61-58, with 4:10 remaining in the game, but held the Yellow Jackets scoreless for almost four minutes, going on an 11-0 run before Georgia Tech hit a three with 25 seconds remaining to stop the NC State run.

– Graduate forward DJ Burns led NC State in points (24) and rebounds (8) in the win. Burns is averaging 23.3 points on 56.6 percent shooting and also pulling down 7.0 rebounds per game over the last three outings. Burns was averaging 9.1 points per game after the Pack’s final game of 2022 on 12/30 at Clemson, but in the nine games NC State has played in 2023, the Rock Hill, S.C., native is averaging 17.0 points per game.

– Senior guard Casey Morsell scored 17 points – the most in his career against an ACC opponent. He shot 6-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. Morsell is 43.9 percent from three-point range this season to rank second in the ACC.

– Sophomore guard Terquavion Smith passed out a career-high 10 assists in the win over Georgia Tech. The Farmville, N.C., native ranks fifth in the ACC in assists per game and still leads the ACC in scoring with an average of 18.5 points per game, despite scoring just five points – his first single digit scoring game of the season – against the Yellow Jackets.

– NC State is ranked 22nd in the Associated Press poll released on Monday, Feb. 6. Its the first time NC State has been ranked in the AP poll since the Jan. 28, 2019 ranking where the Pack was ranked 23rd.

 

Tuesday Storylines

– The Pack’s 19-5 record is NC State’s best record through 24 games since the 2005-06 team was 19-5.

– NC State has won eight of its last nine ACC games. The last time the Pack had that much…