By the numbers: A deeper look at the Wolfpack’s blowout win over the Tar Heels

By Noah Fleischman

After dropping back-to-back ACC games in horrific fashion — a 41-point blowout loss at Louisville and a seven-point blown lead in the final minute against Miami — NC State returned to the win column with an 82-58 romp over No. 16 North Carolina on Tuesday night at the Lenovo Center. 

Let’s take a look at the key numbers and statistics from the Wolfpack’s bludgeoning of the Tar Heels in Raleigh.

By the numbers:

4: Total turnovers for NC State in the win. That was a step forward in the offense’s ability to keep itself ahead of its opponent with ease after it logged at least 10 giveaways in each of the last three games. UNC managed to score just 3 points off turnovers, which was the fewest posted by an opponent in the last seven games.

7:15: How much game time senior forward Darrion Williams missed after his scary fall onto the left side of his face. NC State’s star player was gushing blood onto the playing floor, but after a brief trip to the Wolfpack’s locker room, Williams returned with stitches above his left eyebrow and a clean No. 34 jersey. He scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting in 16 minutes in the victory.

9: Number of wins NC State has when freshman guard Matt Able scores in double figures. The No. 19 recruit in the 2025 cycle scored a season-best 19 points with 5 made three-pointers in his first taste of the UNC rivalry. Able has now set a new season-best scoring total in each of his last two games, totaling 8 made triples across his red-hot shooting stretch.

15: UNC’s three-point percentage. The Tar Heels started an awful 1 of 18 from beyond the arc as the Wolfpack defense denied most post-entry feeds against the shorthanded bunch. Although UNC hit 4 three-pointers in the second half, it finished a meager 5 of 33 on its perimeter shooting.

24: Largest margin of victory for NC State against UNC since 1962, which was Dean Smith’s first game against the Everett Case-led Wolfpack. The Wolfpack never trailed after falling behind 6-4 in the opening moments of the game. It led to the largest blowout over the Tar Heels in the modern era. As a result, Pack head coach Will Wade posted the biggest margin of victory by an NC State coach in his first meeting with UNC ever in program history.

37:54: Time NC State spent leading the game. It was a near wire-to-wire victory for the Wolfpack, which trailed for just 30 seconds the entire night. NC State led by double digits for more than 27 minutes in the victory.

40: Points in the paint by NC State. The Wolfpack took advantage of the Tar Heels being without its starting frontcourt — Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar — due to injury. In turn, the Pack did whatever it wanted to score around the rim, led by senior guard Quadir Copeland’s game-high 20 points.

60.5: Quadir Copeland’s stop percentage against UNC. The Tar Heels failed to score on 60.5 percent of their possessions with him on the floor for 32 minutes. Redshirt junior guard Terrance Arceneaux paced the Pack with an 84.2 percent mark in 23 minutes off the bench. 

19,376: Total fans in the Lenovo Center during the win. It marked NC State’s fourth sellout of the season, while it was the program’s largest crowd of the season due to the view bar construction being finished to allow for more fans into the building. It was also the third straight home game with at least 18,410 fans in the building. The Wolfpack ranks eighth nationally across all of Division I in average home attendance this season (15,968).