NC State will look for another balanced performance when it hosts Campbell on Friday in Raleigh, N.C.
Five players scored in double figures for the Wolfpack (1-0) in a season-opening win over visiting Austin Peay on Monday.
Terquavion Smith scored 26 points with five assists and three 3-pointers in a 99-50 win against the Governors.
Jarkel Joiner, a transfer from Ole Miss, had 18 points and eight assists, while Jack Clark had 15 points and seven rebounds, D.J. Burns Jr. added 10 points and nine rebounds and Casey Morsell finished with 10 points to round out an efficient effort.
Smith withdrew from the NBA draft to return to the Wolfpack last spring after averaging 16.3 points. He also hit 96 3-pointers last season, becoming the first freshman to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in made 3-pointers since Duke’s J.J. Redick (95) in the 2002-03 season.
Smith’s decision to return could make NC State’s 11-21 record last year– the program’s first 20-loss season in its 110-year history — a distant memory.
Leading 49-21 at halftime, the Wolfpack opened the second half on an 11-5 run to take a 60-26 lead on Smith’s layup with 17:10 left in the game. The Wolfpack stretched their lead to 50 points when Ernest Ross dunked off a pass from Morsell with a little more than seven minutes left.
“It was important for us, as a team,” Smith said. “We have a lot of players who play together and play for the front of the jersey and not the back.”
Campbell is coming off a season-opening, 79-62 win over the visiting St. Augustine Falcons, a Division II school, on Monday in Buies Creek, N.C.
The Fighting Camels, who led by 17 points at halftime and by as many as 26 points in the second half, were paced by Jay Pal’s 13 points and eight rebounds and Ricky Clemons’ 13 points and seven rebounds.
Anthony Dell’Orso added 11 points and six boards for Campbell, which saw 12 players score. Jesus Carralero and Joshua Lusane had seven points apiece.
“That’s definitely a good sign,” Campbell coach Kevin McGeehan said. “The difference between the top and bottom of the depth chart is not that much. We need to get better, but I was pleased that we got so much contribution from so many different places.”
–Field Level Media
