NC State Hosts Maine Saturday Afternoon at PNC Arena

RALEIGH, NC – The NC State men's basketball team looks to improve to 4-0 on the young season when it hosts Maine at 2 p.m. on Saturday inside PNC Arena.

The game will be shown on ACC Network Extra with Andrew Sanders and Chris Corchiani calling the action.

Tony Haynes and Chucky Brown will be calling the action on the Wolfpack Sports Network. The game will air locally on 101.5 FM beginning at 1 p.m. No additional radio affiliates or TuneIn Radio will be broadcasting the game, but the live radio stream on GoPack.com will be available for free.

Backpack Buddies Donations
NC State's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has teamed up with Inter-Faith Food Shuttles and will be collecting donations for BackPack Buddies from fans as they enter PNC Arena on Saturday. Inter-Faith Food Shuttle's BackPack Buddies Program serves 2400 children every week during the school year. Children are selected by counselors and principals at each school. They receive a bag with six meals and two snacks, discreetly placed in their backpacks by school staff.

Items being collected are:
- proteins (canned beans, meats and soups (no creamy soups))
- fruits and vegetables (cans and squeeze pouches. No heavy syrup or soft top cups)
- healthy snacks (crunchy granola bars and raisins)
- breakfast items (individual whole grain cereals, oatmeals and grits)
- noodles (individual packages and cups of mac & cheese, ramen and other noodles)
- milk and juice (100% fruit juice boxes and shelf stable 2% or less fat milk)

Please do not bring items devoid of nutritional value such as soda, chips, candy, sugary breakfast foods, and vienna sausages.

Fans that donate (5) or more perishable items at the Box Office at PNC Arena on the day of each game will receive a voucher for Buy One, Get One Free tickets.

Disney Day
Saturday is Disney Day at PNC Arena. Fans that come to the game dressed in their favorite Disney character outfit can visit the sales table (Sections 127/128) for a promo code voucher. Disney characters will be on the concourse to meet fans and everyone will have a chance to sign a birthday card for Mickey Mouse. There will also be face painters and balloonists on the concourse and fans will have a chance to win Disney on Ice tickets.

Pack Tracks
- NC State improved to 3-0 on the season with a 100-49 win over UNC Asheville on Tuesday evening. Five players reached double figures in scoring for the Pack, led by sophomore guard Devon Daniels who scored a season-high 20 points and also grabbed a team-best nine rebounds.
- The 51-point victory was historic for the Pack on Tuesday. With the win the Pack becomes the first team in ACC history to win each of its first three games of the season by 46 points -or more. Through three games, NC State is +147 on its opponents as the Pack is averaging 100 points/game in the young season while holding its opponents to an average of 51 points/game.
- NC State's streak of three straight games holding opponents to under 60 points is the longest since the 2009-10 team held five straight opponents under 60 points from March 7-March 16.
- The Pack's defense has limited the first three opponents this season to field goal percentages lower than any team shot against NC State last season. UNC Asheville shot 33.3 percent on Tuesday night. The Pack limited Maryland Eastern Shore to 31.5 percent shooting on Saturday and Mount St. Mary's shot 32.8 percent in the season-opener on Tuesday. Last season the lowest field goal percentage for an NC State opponent was 34.8 percent by Robert Morris.

NC State - Maine Series
- Saturday marks the first meeting between the two programs.
- The Pack has a 9-0 all-time record against teams from the America East Conference.

Saturday Storylines
- NC State has won 24 of its last 25 non-conference games at PNC Arena.
- Balanced scoring attack for the Pack: Torin Dorn is the only Pack player to score in double figures in all three games this season. In NC State's three games there have been 13 double-digit performances by eight different players. Only Blake Harris (scored 8 points against Mount St. Mary's and UNC Asheville) and Eric Lockett (season-high of 6 points) have not reached double figures yet for the Pack.
- Maine's head coach Richard Barron was an assistant coach at NC State for the women's basketball program for two seasons from 2009-11. He left NC State in 2011 to become Maine's women's basketball head coach. He was the head women's basketball coach at Maine from 2011-17. He is in his first season as head coach of the men's basketball program.
- Maine assistant coach Edniesha Curry is the only woman currently serving as a full-time assistant coach in NCAA Division l Men's Basketball.

Pack Leading the Nation in Rebounding Margin
- With the departure of Abdul-Malik Abu, Lennard Freeman and Omer Yurtseven, the Pack only returned 31.5 percent of its rebounding total from last season. Despite the loss of players that combined to average over 15 rebounds per game, NC State has had its three best rebouding performances of the Kevin Keatts era to open the season.
- NC State has outrebounded all three opponents by more than 20 to open the season. The Pack was +22 against Mount St. Mary's, +23 against Maryland Eastern Shore and + 27 against UNC Asheville. Last season the best rebounding margin for NC State was +17 against UMKC.
- The Pack is leading all 351 NCAA Division l teams with a +24 rebounding margin.
- NC State leads the ACC in every rebounding category: Rebounding margin, Rebounding per game, offensive rebounds per game, defensive rebounds per game, defensive rebound percentage and offensive rebound percentage.
- NC State has a 47.1 percent offensive rebounding percentage meaning when the Pack has missed a shot this season (it leads the ACC in field goal percentage at 55.1%), 47.1% of the time NC State has come down with the rebound.
- Seven of the 10 players on NC State's team have had at least one game with five or more rebounds.

Bench Production
- Through three games, NC State's bench has scored 120 points and is averaging 40 points per game.
- The bench is shooting 54.4 percent from the field and has had four individual double-digit performances.
- The bench scored 50 points in the win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday. The 50 bench points are the most for the Pack in eight seasons.
- NC State has outscored the opponents bench, 120-30, this season.
- Last season, NC State's bench outscored the opponents, 720-523.

NC State Hosts Maine Saturday Afternoon at PNC Arena

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Abdul-Malik Abu

Devon Daniels

Torin Dorn

Lennard Freeman

Blake Harris

Eric Lockett

Omer Yurtseven