Pack Completes Season Sweep of Wake Forest with 96-78 Win in Winston-Salem

Saturday, January 31

Winston-Salem, NC

12 PM

NC State

16-6,7-2ACC

Wake Forest

11-11,2-7ACC

NC State

Wake Forest

Pack Completes Season Sweep of Wake Forest with 96-78 Win in Winston-Salem

1/31/2026 2:51:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The NC State men's basketball team (16-6, 7-2 ACC) completed a season sweep of Wake Forest (11-11, 2-7 ACC) with a 96-78 win at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on a snowy Saturday in Winston-Salem.

Paul McNeil, Jr., led the Pack with 28 points. It was the second-most points in a game in McNeil's career and the most against an ACC opponent. McNeil, Jr., scored 14 points in each half as he finished the game 8-of-12 from the field, including 6-of-8 from three-point range.

Despite only playing 24 minutes because an injury limited his playing time in the second half, Darrion Williams scored 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting and made 5-of-8 three-pointers.

Ven-Allen Lubin finished with 12 points and eight rebounds while Tre Holloman finished with 11 points.

Quadir Copeland finished one basket shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 assists.

NC State finished the game 16-of-28 from three-point range and shot 54.1 percent overall from the field. The shooting percentage was the highest for the Pack since shooting 56.1 percent in the win at Florida State on Jan. 10.

NC State led by 18, 49-31, at the half, but Wake Forest opened the second half on a tear getting within seven, 64-57, on a Juke Harris three-pointer with 11:54 to play.

Matt Able answered Harris' three on the Pack's next possession and after Wake again got within eight, two free throws from Able pushed NC State's lead back to double-digits and the Demon Deacons never got within single digits in the final 10 minutes of the game.

The Pack missed its first four shots of the game and didn't score until a McNeil, Jr., three-pointer almost three minutes into the game, but NC State still managed to shot 54.8 percent from the field (17-of-31) and made nine three-pointers in the first half to take a 49-31 lead into the halftime locker room.

McNeil, Jr.'s three was the start of a 9-0 run for the Pack to take a 9-2 lead and Wake Forest never got closer than five the rest of the half. A three from Terrance Arceneaux gave the Pack its first double-digit lead of the game, 17-6, and the Demon Deacons never got within single digits the rest of the half.

Harris led Wake Forest with a career-high 31 points.

NC State will close a stretch of its six game of eight games on the road Tuesday night at SMU. Tipoff against the Mustangs is scheduled for 9 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.