NC State halts losing streak, advances at ACC tournament with win over Pitt

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When N.C. State and Pittsburgh stepped onto the Spectrum Center court in Charlotte on Wednesday, the two programs were in desperately different positions.

The Panthers squeaked into the ACC tournament on Saturday as the No. 15 seed. They had nothing to lose and were fresh off an upset win over Stanford in the opening round. Pitt (13-20), which won’t make the NCAA tournament, played like it didn’t want its season to end.

The Wolfpack (20-12), meanwhile, had everything to gain. It played for NCAA tournament seeding and a bye.

N.C. State topped Pittsburgh, 98-88, snapping its four-game losing streak and advancing to the ACC tournament quarterfinals. The No. 7 seed Wolfpack will face No. 2 seed Virginia at noon ET on Thursday.

“There would probably be no next week if we lost today, so this was important, or we would have been in real trouble for next week,” N.C. State head coach Will Wade said. “This was important. And we need to try to play better at Virginia. We’ve gotten our doors blown off twice by Virginia. We need to try to play better and see if we can make a game of it tomorrow.”

Offense dominated the game for both teams, with six N.C. State players scoring in double figures. Pitt finished with four players reaching the double-digit threshold.

Quadir Copeland led N.C. State with 24 points and eight assists. Ven-Allen Lubin was right behind his teammate with 18 points, including a perfect 8 for 8 from the line.

Copeland said he hadn’t been the team’s confidence booster, which is his job, and that was selfish during the losing streak. Against Pitt, he really wanted to return to that and be the catalyst for a win. The senior scored or assisted on 46 of the Pack’s 98 points.

“I wanted to get back to being the energy guy, to getting everybody going, to setting the tone,” Copeland said. “That’s the most important part.”

Paul McNeil finished with 15 points and three shots from the perimeter. It was his most efficient performance — when making a trio of baskets from downtown — since he shot 57.1% from 3 in N.C. State’s 1-point loss at Miami.

Pitt’s Cameron Corhen led all scorers with 27 points.

N.C. State finished with a 60.8% field goal efficiency, while the Panthers hit 57.1% of their shots. It was the first time this season Pittsburgh had made 12 3s.

“Pittsburgh played extremely hard. They’re down a bunch of guys,” Wade said. “What Coach (Jeff) Capel has done with those guys to get them to play like this and hang in there is incredibly impressive. Hats off to them. They played really, really well.”

The first half felt a lot like the first meeting in January, only with far less defense. Pitt led for 13 minutes in the opening half Wednesday and built a nine-point lead with eight minutes before the break. The Wolfpack used a 13-0 run, propelled by free throws and a pair of well-timed 3 balls, to take its first lead since the opening possession.

The teams traded baskets for the final 4 1/2 minutes — the Panthers tied the game three times — but N.C. State went to the locker room with a 51-50 lead.

“They hit some tough ones. They hit one off the bounce, they hit one at the end of the shot clock,” Wade said. “We had to weather the initial storm. They were shooting almost 70%.”

The same thing happened in their regular season contest at Petersen Events Center. The Wolfpack trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, before a surge gave them a 1-point advantage before the break.

On Wednesday, N.C. State opened the second half on a 10-1 run, building its largest lead of the game. That ballooned to as many as 15 points.

Pittsburgh capitalized on a 3 1/2 minute N.C. State scoring drought to cut the deficit to single digits. A late surge, including a four-point swing on a flagrant foul call, swung the game in N.C. State’s favor.

Despite the poor first-half defense, the Wolfpack returned in the second and held the Panthers to 38.

“That’s what we talked about at halftime. Pitt had 50 at halftime,” N.C. State forward Darrion Williams said. “We were like, ‘That’s unacceptable,’ for not that high of a prolific offense, I guess you could say. We just need to sit down and guard and then finish it with rebounds.”

Foul trouble played a big role for both teams. At halftime, four Panthers had at least two fouls. Omari Witherspoon, who shot 3 for 5 from the arc, picked up three. Corhen joined that group 40 seconds into the second half, fouling Copeland on a layup.

In the following two minutes, officials handed Williams and Lubin their second fouls. They were the fourth and fifth N.C. State players with two personals. Lubin picked up his third with 16 minutes to play.

Corhen was called for the Flagrant 1 foul on Lubin. The Pack also received possession. McNeil scored an easy layup on the inbounds play.

“That’s coaching, that’s adjustments, that’s them knowing that that play worked last game against them,” Copeland said. “We were saving it for the right time, for the right moment, to keep the momentum going.”

All the officials’ calls translated into plenty of foul shots for both teams, but N.C. State came away with a few more opportunities and made them at a higher clip. The Wolfpack finished 23-27 (85.2%) from the stripe.

After its late-season slide, N.C. State was on the NCAA tournament bubble. Multiple bracketologists believed the Wolfpack would remain in the field due to their resume but said they desperately needed at least one win for the sake of seeding.

A victory, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, would likely keep the team out of Dayton. A loss, however, could push the Pack into the First Four, especially if there are a high number of “bid stealers.” These are unexpected teams earning automatic bids pushing the anticipated auto teams into at-large spots. N.C. State was a bid stealer in 2024 after upsetting Duke and North Carolina.

Lunardi’s prediction, however, was based on the expectation that N.C. State would play Stanford, the No. 10 seed. The Cardinal was ranked No. 62 in the NET and KenPom.

Pitt, meanwhile, was the final team to make the ACC tournament field. It ranks 102 in the NET and No. 96 on KenPom. The margin of error became much thinner after the Panthers’ upset in the first round of the tournament.

“I don’t think we’re going to have more than one or two, just based on experience,” Lunardi said Monday during a media call. “I wouldn’t say safe, but I would say 80-20 they’re going to be in the tournament. Then, probably, assuming that they’re in, there may be only one chance in three that they go to the First Four. That would require losing in the ACC opening round.”

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