NC State wasted no time putting its stamp on Saturday afternoon, rolling past Lenoir-Rhyne 130-66 in an exhibition at the Lenovo Center behind a relentless offensive outburst.
The Bears briefly had something to celebrate when Chris Crudup drove in for the opening basket and a 2-0 edge, but that was as good as it got. NC State answered right away, with Paul McNeil, Jr. drilling two early threes to fuel an 8-2 burst and swing the game in the Wolfpack’s favor for good.
From there, the pace tilted hard toward NC State. Christian Hammond hit a three, Robert Jurkovic added buckets, and the lead quickly climbed to 17-6 as the Wolfpack kept stringing together clean possessions and active stops. By halftime, the numbers told the whole story: NC State shot 75.0 percent from the field, going 21-of-28, and was nearly just as sharp at the line at 90.9 percent, 20-of-22, on the way to a 69-30 cushion.
The second half picked up right where the first left off. McNeil, Jr. buried another three on the opening possession, and Darius Adams pushed the margin beyond 50 points with a fast-break triple that made it 91-43. Later, NC State ripped off a 14-0 run to finish the game’s most decisive stretch, and Kingston Whitty’s free throw with 6:13 left gave the Wolfpack their largest lead of the afternoon at 67 points, 119-52.
Five players finished in double figures for NC State, led by McNeil, Jr., who scored a game-high 23 points while hitting 7-of-13 from deep. Ven-Allen Lubin turned in a perfect night around the rim and at the stripe, scoring 22 points on 5-of-5 shooting and 12-of-13 on free throws while adding nine rebounds and four blocks.
Adams also stuffed the stat sheet with a game-high 10 assists to go with nine points, and Preston Edmead finished with eight assists.
In Other News...
NC State Finally Made The Dave Doeren Decision Fans Feared
A rough start to the 2026 season finally caught up to Dave Doeren, as NC State moved on from the longtime coach after the Wolfpack fell to 3-4 with a loss to Stanford. Doeren had spent 14 seasons in Raleigh and was the longest-tenured coach in modern NC State football history, building a 98-74 record while overseeing one of the program's steadiest stretches.
The timing only sharpened the sense that the decision had been building for a while, especially after a loss to a Stanford team that had struggled in its own right. Even with Doeren under contract through 2029, the Wolfpack chose to make a change now, leaving the program to sort out what comes next after a disappointing opening half to the year. [Read more 🡒]
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Stanford finished with nearly 500 yards and four touchdown passes, a pace NC State never really managed to slow down once the game got into the middle stages. The defeat evened the all-time series at 1-1 and sent the Wolfpack home with a result that will linger, though there is little time to dwell on it with California next on the schedule in Raleigh. [Read more 🡒]
NC State Showed A Different Offensive Look Fans Needed To See
NC State wrapped up its offseason with a convincing 128-64 exhibition win over Lenoir-Rhyne at the Lenovo Center, and the bigger takeaway was the different kind of offense it put on display. The ball moved, the scoring came from multiple spots, and the frontcourt looked far more involved than it had at times in the past, which is exactly the sort of balance the Wolfpack wanted to show before the real games begin.
Ven-Allen Lubin was a force inside, while Paul McNeil gave the perimeter attack a needed spark and Robert Jurkovi added efficient production of his own. For a team trying to settle into its identity, the exhibition offered a useful snapshot of what this group can look like when the offense is flowing, with the season opener against Campbell now the next chance to see whether that rhythm carries over. [Read more 🡒]