NC State Basketball won their third straight game to open the season but had to battle to earn every point of the 82-70 victory against Coastal Carolina.
Jayden Taylor scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-15 from the field for the Wolfpack (3-0), while three other players scored in double figures. Trey Parker, a freshman guard, scored a career-high 13 points off the bench while adding five boards.
NC State was able to score 17 points off of Coastal’s 19 turnovers. Those 19 turnovers was the most committed since Missouri forced the Chanticleers into 27 turnovers.
The Chanticleers (1-2) were led by RaSheed Jones, who put up 17 points and five boards. Denzel Hines, a sophomore forward, added 14 points and game-high eight rebounds before fouling out with just over seven minutes to play.
Here are 3 Takeaways:
Takeaway #1: The Wolfpack need to improve on the boards
NC State got out rebounded for the second straight game, struggling to fill the void left by DJ Burns. In fact, in the first half, Coastal outrebounded the Wolfpack 16 to 8 and held them to only one offensive rebound.
“The first thing I go to [at halftime] is the board and figure out how many deflections we had,” said eighth-year head coach Kevin Keatts. “We had 11…..we talk about getting 40 deflections [per game].”
In the second half, Dontrez Styles was able to bring down five of his six boards, allowing the Wolfpack to close the rebounding game to a respectable difference of three.
This program, even with a strong player like Burns patrolling the paint last season, was outrebounded on average by one board a game.
Takeaway #2: Jones is going to cause trouble in Sun Belt play
Kevin Keatts had never seen a game where all the three pointers that were made by one person. That person was sophomore guard RaSheed Jones.
Hoopin 👌#ChantsUp I #EDGE pic.twitter.com/DMw33lr4bi
— Coastal Men’s Basketball (@CoastalMBB) November 14, 2024
Jones, who came into this game shooting 60% from beyond the arc, went 5-of-7 and scored all but two of his points from three-point range. Looking at the analytics, Jones was the only Coastal player to have a true shooting percentage of over 70%.
The Marion, IN native, playing at Northwest Florida State College for his redshirt freshman season, shot just under 40% from three-point range and 45.3% overall from the field.
Even a team that last season held teams to 33.5% shooting from three couldn’t contain Jones, then the defenses that Coastal will face in the Sun Belt might have a tough time stopping him.
Takeaway #3: Trey Parker has a career night
Parker, a freshman guard from Fayetteville, NC, came into the season after completing two seasons with Overtime Elite. He averaged just over 12 PPG in preparing for college.
In his third collegiate game, he scored 13 points and a team-high five defensive rebounds.
One freshman starts the break, another finishes it.
📺: ACCNX pic.twitter.com/3tk2TNJrK1
— NC State Men’s Basketball (@PackMensBball) November 14, 2024
“He was a energy guy,” Keatts said about the freshman. “I go into the game [saying] who’s going to be my energy guy. I though Trey was great.”
Having a player like Parker coming off the bench, even as a freshman, would be able to take some of the pressure off Jayden Taylor and Michael O’Connell. Parker was pushed into more minutes when O’Connell got into early foul trouble and rose to the occasion.
The Wolfpack have two more non-conference games before a three-game stretch against Power 5 teams, and getting freshman like Parker more involved will only improve the team as they look to establish their offensive identity.
Next Up for NC State (3-0): vs. Colgate (1-2) – Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. EST
Next Up for Coastal Carolina (1-2): vs. Jacksonville State (2-1) – Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. EST