RALEIGH — The NC State Wolfpack remained perfect on the year, as they dug deep to fend off the VCU Rams in a 85-79 win Monday night at Lenovo Center.
The Rams gave the Pack trouble and kept it close all the way, with the largest lead in the game being just nine points less than 10 minutes into the contest, but NC State never trailed outside of the opening basket.
“I thought VCU played great,” said NC State coach Will Wade. “They’re a tremendous team, tremendous program. We were able to make our free throws down the stretch, which was huge. We got a couple of timely turnovers, which helped us, but give them credit. They played hard, went to the offensive glass hard. It was a good game between two really good teams. VCU is a great team and they’re picked to win the Atlantic-10 for a reason. It was good for us to step up in competition and play a really good team before we head to Maui.”
It isn’t typical to see schools scheduling a mid-major favorite like VCU for their early nonconference schedule, but Wade wanted an early challenge for his program and saw it as an opportunity to add potential key wins.
“It’s a Quad 2 game for us at home and it’ll be a Quad 1 game when we return the game up there next year,” Wade said. “It makes sense to me. I don’t know why we wouldn’t do it. Look, you want to test yourself, you want to play good teams. VCU is not some charity program. This is a really good program. They win 20+ games every year. They’re as good as many teams in our league so I think it makes sense when you have to build a resume.”
While NC State was able to keep the Rams at an arms length away for most of the game, things got dicey toward the end, with VCU tying it up on multiple occasions and really pressing in the closing minutes.
However, it was a few veterans making some big plays at the end that secured the victory for the Wolfpack.
Tre Holloman had ice in his veins down the stretch, nailing six straight free throws to push the lead to two-possessions in critical moments and it was a steal by Quadir Copeland on an inbound ball with six seconds remaining that really put the final bow on the evening.
“We have seniors and we’ve been through the wars, been through the battles,” Holloman said. “We just stayed calm, breathed and pulled out the win.”
Early on, it was once again the Darrion Williams show for the Wolfpack as the senior forward made his first five shots and scored 17 of the Wolfpack’s 39 first-half points.
It took a little bit for the rest of the lineup to get going, but Holloman played the biggest role in that second half, picking up 16 points of his 25 total points.
“Tre’s been really, really good,” Wade said. “I’ve been pleased with him. We have to cut down on some of the turnovers and some of the silliness on things, but he’s getting more and more professional, more and more business-like and I think he’s going to continue to grow throughout the season.”
It was a bit of an off game for sophomore Paul McNeil Jr. who went 0 for 4 from the field and finished with zero points, despite being the Pack’s second leading scorer coming into the game, but he found ways to contribute still with nine boards, three assists a block and a steal.
“Paul didn’t make any shots tonight, but he had a career high nine rebounds,” Wade said. “He did some things to contribute and help us win.”
“I think Paul’s the best shooter in the country,’ Williams said. “He puts in more work than anybody. He’ll be fine.
NC State also struggled in a few other areas, namely defending beyond the arc, as they surrendered 13 3-pointers, and turnovers, as they were credited with 17 lost possessions.
“We were very fortunate to win,” Wade said. “We got outshot by 12 balls, which is hard to do. We won it at the free throw line drawing a bunch of fouls. We didn’t make nine-plus 3s. We were fortunate, hot from 3 to start, which masked some of our other issues offensively. We turned it over 17 times and shot about another six turnovers. It’s hard to give away possessions like that and score how you need to, so we certainly have to get that cleaned up.”
However, it takes tough games to truly learn from and grow and so the Wolfpack is confident that they’ll be able to fix those problems as they move closer and closer to conference play.
“It’s good that we had a close game before we start this stretch and get into conference play and everything because most of those are going to be close,” Williams said. “So being in a six-minute game with a close contest is good for us.”
Next on the itinerary for NC State is the Maui Invitational, where the Wolfpack will first square off against Seton Hall.
