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BASKETBALL

NC State Is Hosting Louisiana Tech Today In Raleigh

NC State is hosting Louisiana Tech today in North Carolina’s state capital.

NC State is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference!

Louisiana Tech is a member of Conference USA!

NC State, Louisiana Tech’s previous match up came on December 23, 2014 in North Carolina’s state capital!

In that match up The NC State men's basketball overcame a sluggish start to defeat Louisiana Tech 73-65. Strong second-half performances from Trevor Lacey and Kyle Washington helped the Wolfpack secure its 10th win of the season and improve to 10-3 overall. The 49 points scored in the second half is the highest-scoring half the Pack has had this season.

Trevor Lacey finished with 20 points and five rebounds. Thirteen of his 20 points came in the game's final 12 minutes. After going scoreless in the first half, Washington scored 11 points and finished with 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season and second of his career. Anthony 'Cat' Barber added 17 points and six rebounds.

In that match up Louisiana Tech  Louisiana Tech showed how good they could be in the first half against NC State, holding a 15-point lead at the break and winning in every statistical category, even rebounding.

The Bulldogs led the entire first half and had as much as an 18-point edge with 14 minutes left in the game, but the tide completely turned and the Wolfpack came back to take the win, 73-65, on Tuesday night inside the PNC Arena.

"Our first 20 minutes I thought we played really well," head coach Michael White said. "I was proud of the effort and the focus our guys came out with. The second half we got outrebounded by 15 and it was a completely different game.

"All we talked about at halftime was not trying to hold on to win by one point, but to win the second 20 minutes by one point. I thought we got off to a decent start in that regard, but our pressure and our press was not as effective."

LA Tech (8-4) was well on its way to an early Christmas present in the form of a victory at halftime with a 39-24 advantage, outscoring NC State (10-3) in the paint, 24-10, with a plus-three rebounding advantage and forcing the Wolfpack into eight turnovers which they turned into 15 points.

The Bulldogs kept the Wolfpack at bay to start the second half as well with Kenneth Smith hitting a step-back three-pointer to have the lead balloon to 50-32 six minutes deep.

Then the home team made its big run, one the `Dogs could not stymy. NC State got rolling with an 18-2 run sparked by Kyle Washington who scored all 11 of his points in the second stanza to go along with his game-high 10 rebounds.

LA Tech was holding on for dear life trying to overcome a hot NC State team and the 15,739 fans behind them. However, the Wolfpack grabbed the lead for the first time with 4:25 to go on a three-point play by Trevor Lacey and never relinquished it.

The Bulldogs made just 7-of-24 shots in the second stanza. They were able to get to the foul line twice as much as the first stanza, but did not make them at the same efficiency rate. In the first half they `Dogs were 7-of-9 while in the second half they were just 11-of-18.

Raheem Appleby and Alex Hamilton combined for 23 first half points, but were held to just 13 in the second half and nine of those came at the charity stripe. They each finished with 18 points.

NC State comes into the game with Louisiana Tech with a record of 4-1!

Why?

Because they won by a score of 65-57 over Texas Southern last Sunday!

In NC State’s 65-57 win over Texas Southern NC State outcored Texas Southern by 11 points in the second period Sunday night to defeat the Tigers, 65-57, at PNC Arena.

NC State jumped out to a 20-11 lead in the first half, but Texas Southern closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 31-28 lead into the halftime break.

The Tigers still led 41-37 six minutes into the second half when NC State went on a 10-0 run to take a 47-41 lead on a Terquavion Smith three-pointer with 12:03 to play.

Texas Southern would cut the deficit to two, 49-47, with 8:24 to go, but a 6-0 run from NC State would officially push the game out of reach as the Tigers never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

Dereon Seabron led the Pack with 21 points and 11 rebounds as the redshirt sophomore posted his fourth double-double in five games this season. He also added a team-best three steals.

After sitting out most of the first half with foul trouble, Cam Hayes scored all 11 of his points in the second half.

Jericole Hellems scored 10 points in the first half, but fouled out of the game in the opening minutes of the second half.
”according to an article on gopack. com”

Louisiana Tech comes into the game with a record of