North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Fairfield
Pack Welcomes Fairfield for Sunday Afternoon Contest at PNC Arena
12/17/2016 2:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NC State looks to move to 6-0 this season at PNC Arena
The NC State men's basketball team looks to win its fourth straight game Sunday afternoon when it hosts Fairfield at PNC Arena. The game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and will be shown on ACC Network Extra. Andrew Sanders and Chris Corchiani, NC State's career assists leader, will call the game on ACC Network Extra.
Fans can also listen to the game on the Wolfpack Sports Network with Gary Hahn and Tony Haynes calling the action.
Pack Tracks
- NC State defeated Appalachian State, 97-64, on Thursday night to win its third straight game and improve to 6-0 at home this season. The Pack scored the game's first 10 points and the Mountaineers never got closer than seven points the rest of the way. NC State had a season-high six players reach double figures in the outing, including three score in double figures off-the-bench. Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., led the Pack with 22 points, six assists and three steals, while freshman Omer Yurtseven added 12 points and four rebounds in his NC State debut.
- The game versus the Mountaineers marked the first game this season all scholarship players were available for the Pack as NC State has played a majority of its first nine games this season down at least two scholarship players. Sophomore Maverick Rowan returned to the lineup on Dec. 10, after suffering a concussion in the season-opening win over Georgia Southern. Freshman Ted Kapita missed the season-opener and the Pack's three games at the Paradise Jam.
- NC State has relied heavily on Torin Dorn, Terry Henderson and Dennis Smith Jr., this season. The trio ranks third (Smith, Jr. - 35.2) and tied for fourth (Dorn and Henderson - 34.7) on the ACC's minutes played per game list. The Pack is the only ACC team to have three players in the top-10 in minutes played.Â
Noting NC State                      Â
 - NC State has had its two best defensive performances of the season in its last two games. The Pack held Appalachian State 0.77 points per possession, five days after holding Tennessee State to 0.80 points per possession. The Pack has held an opponent to less than 1.00 points per possession four times this season. (St. Francis Brooklyn and Saint Joseph's)
- Thursday night marked the first time this season NC State had its full compliment of scholarship players available for a game and it showed in the best bench scoring performance of the season. The Pack had three players score in double figures off-the-bench in the game after having only three individual double-digit scoring performances off-the-bench in the first nine games. The Pack scored 46 bench points against Appalachian State, double its previous-best performance which was 23 points against St. Francis Brooklyn on Nov. 13. For the season, the Pack has 141 points (14.1) off-the-bench, while its opponents have 251 points (25.1) off-the-bench. NC State has been down two scholarship players most of the season and at some points three scholarship players. The game against Appalachian State was the first time this season NC State had all scholarship players in uniform.
- While the Pack has been outrebounded in six of 10 games this season, NC State has outscored its opponents in second chance points in three of the last five games.
- NC State has committed 11 turnovers or less in five of 10Â games this season.
- Dennis Smith, Jr., is the only Pack player to score in double figures in every game this season.Â
NC State vs. Fairfield Series     Â
Sunday will mark the first ever meeting between the Pack and Fairfield ... NC State is 11-3 all-time against teams from the MAAC ... The Pack ends non-conference play against another MAAC foe as it hosts Rider on Thursday, Dec. 28.
Balanced Scoring Attack     Â
NC State had five players reach double figures in scoring in its two opening games this season and had six players reach double figures in the win over Appalachian State on Saturday. Last season in 33 games, NC State only had three games where five players reached double figures in scoring. The Pack has had four different players lead the team in scoring this season: Terry Henderson vs. Georgia Southern, Creighton, Boston University and Tennessee State, Torin Dorn vs. St. Francis and Illinois, Abdul-Malik Abu vs. Montana and Dennis Smith, Jr., vs. Saint Joseph's, Loyola (Chicago) and Appalachian State. Through 10 games this season, the Pack has four players averaging in double figures.
Getting Their First Run with the Pack     Â
Counting Terry Henderson (who only played the first six minutes of the season last year before being injured and lost for the year), 73.9% of the minutes (1497 of 2025 minutes) played for NC State this season have been by players that did not play for the Wolfpack last season. Not counting Henderson, the Pack has had seven players make their NC State debut this season, including five freshmen. The five freshmen have played 802 minutes this season, 39.6% of the total minutes played on the year. The freshmen class accounts for the highest percentage of minutes played this season for NC State.Â
Shooting Star
Sophomore guard Torin Dorn shot 50.5% from the field as a freshman at UNC-Charlotte in 2014-15 en route to being named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Through nine games this season, Dorn is 60-of-106 (56.6%) from the field to rank 5th in the ACC in field goal percentage. He is 45-of-76 (59.2%) on two-pointers and 15-of-30 (50%) on three-pointers. Dorn did not miss a two-point field goal attempt in the Nov. 13 game against St. Francis. He was 8-of-8 in the game on two-pointers. He also hit his his first four field goals against Montana before missing a layup late in the first half to snap his streak of 13 consecutive 2-point field goals made.
One of Top-Scoring Trios in ACC
Freshman Dennis Smith, Jr., sophomore Torin Dorn and senior Terry Henderson combine to form one of the top-scoring trios in the ACC. The three players all rank in the top-15 in the ACC in scoring as NC State is the only team in the ACC to have three players in the top-15. The trio combines to average 51.1 points per game. Overall, Dorn, Henderson and Smith have combined to score 471 points this season, which is 62.9% of the points scored by NC State this year.Â
Top Scoring Trios in ACC
Pittsburgh - Michael Young (23.0), Jamel Artis (18.9), Cameron Johnson (11.9) 53.8 66.4%
Duke - Luke Kennard (20.0), Grayson Allen (17.7), Amile Jefferson (15.1) 52.8 57.7%
NC State - Dennis Smith, Jr. (18.7), Terry Henderson (16.6), Torin Dorn (15.8) 51.1 62.9%
Freshmen Running the Show
Freshman point guards Dennis Smith, Jr., and Markell Johnson run the show for the Wolfpack this season. The two players combined have 79 assists and 38 turnovers in 588 minutes of action this season. The two combine to average just 1 turnover every 15.5 minutes. Johnson (28 assists/11 turnovers) has a 2.55 assist-to-turnover ratio, while Smith (51 assists/27 turnovers) has a 1.89 assist-to-turnover ratio. Through 10 games, NC State is averaging 81.3 points per game and shooting 48.2% from the field. The two freshmen also rank 1st (Smith - 18) and 2nd (Johnson - 12) on the team in steals.
Mr. Double-Double     Â
Junior forward Abdul-Malik Abu has two double-doubles this season and now has 18 for his career. The 18 double-doubles are the most of any current player in the ACC. Abu had two double-doubles as a freshman and 14 last season as a sophomore.
