RALEIGH — If NC State walk-on Jordan Snell taking a tech as soon as he entered the game and then pulling up from the logo at the buzzer doesn’t tell you all you need to know about how this game went, then I don’t know what to tell you.
The NC State Wolfpack snapped a two-game losing streak with a 82-58 drubbing of UNC Chapel Hill, delivering a statement win in Will Wade’s first meeting with the university’s bitter rival.
The Wolfpack were simply firing on all engines Wednesday night, earning their largest margin of victory over UNC since 1962.
“I represent NC State, I represent our fanbase and I represent our school,” Wade said. “So if it’s important to our fans, it’s important to us or to me. I mean, you could feel it when you walked out into that arena. It was just different.”
“My job was really just to tell these guys the importance of this game,” said Snell, who has been with the Wolfpack since 2022. “Big ups to them because they came out firing.”
The Tar Heels came into the matchup shorthanded as they were without both star freshman Caleb Wilson, who fractured his hand a week earlier in Miami, and center Henri Veesaar, who was out due to a lower-extremity injury.
The two titans of the Tar Heels elite front court had combined for an average of 36.2 points, 18.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.6 blocks per game for UNC and 42.5% of the team’s total offensive production.
But as the No. 16 ranked team in the country, you’d have expected to see a better response from the rest of the roster.
The shots didn’t fall for UNC and instead of locking in on the other parts of the game, the team sort of capitulated, looking disinterested and half-hearted for most of the game. They were outworked and outplayed all night and that’s a worrying sign for UNC.
“I just felt our competitive fight wasn’t there,” said UNC coach Hubert Davis. “We weren’t tough enough. We weren’t good enough.”
For NC State, things really couldn’t have gone better.
The Wolfpack looked like they were trying to even the playing field early, as Tre Holloman, Darrion Williams and Musa Sagnia all went down with injuries within 12 minutes of game time, but the trio were all able to return to the game.
The team was not only locked in defensively — with seven steals and 12 forced turnovers — but were also clicking offensively, with five players registering double-digit points.
“I felt like our guys were locked in and ready to go,” Wade said. “Guys got off the mat. We always talk about how guys have to do their best work in tough situations and our guys certainly did that.”
Guard Quadir Copeland led the way with 20 points and seven assists, while also providing the energy and tenacity that really shines in a rivalry game.
“He gives everybody a spirit and a lot of confidence,” Wade said. “He’s one of those guys where you love him if he plays for you and you don’t like him very much if he doesn’t.”
“Quadir controlled the game,” Davis said. “His talent out there is real.”
Freshman Matt Able was right behind him with 19 points, 15 of those coming off of 3s, and Williams, Paul McNeil and Ven-Allen Lubin provided the rest of the offensive outpouring
“He keeps setting career highs,” Wade said on the freshman. “Matt’s playing great and he’s really coming along. Very, very proud of him. When he shoots it like that, he’s very, very difficult to guard. He’s really going to help our team here as we get across the finish line in these next few weeks.”
The game also had to feel good for Lubin, a former Tar Heel.
Before the season started, both Wade and Williams stated how they felt Lubin was misused in Chapel Hill and the senior certainly backed their talk up, with 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal in a game where UNC could certainly have used his size and power down low.
“It just means a lot,” Lubin said. “Just knowing that my guys have my back. They knew how important this game was to me and that this was a game where I wanted to come out in and play my hardest. It just means a lot to come out with a win like this where we all played together the right way.”
The real disappoint out of this game though is that these teams won’t see each other again unless they run into each other in either the ACC or NCAA Tournaments.
With the new ACC scheduling format, the two Tobacco Road programs were only scheduled to meet once, the first time that’s happened since 1919.
Regardless, this win is a big resume builder for the Wolfpack and helped to right the ship a bit too after a pair of disappointing losses.
“We just needed a win,” Wade said. “Coming off of what we went through on Saturday, we just needed to find a way to win. And I do think it helped that it was North Carolina. I do think that helped us.”
NC State will look to replicate their success on the home stretch, with only four games remaining on the schedule before the ACC Tournament.
“We’re still a long way from March, so we still have to take it game-by-game,” Snell said.
