N.C. State basketball shorthanded for Wednesday night’s game with Penn State

N.C. State faced Penn State Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at PNC Arena with two players unavailable due to injuries.

Senior forward Abdul-Malik Abu and sophomore forward Darius Hicks were not in uniform due to injuries that kept them out of practice this week.

Hicks’ injury is the more serious of the two. The 6-7 Hicks suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and will not play again this season.

The 6-8 Abu is experiencing soreness in his right knee, where he suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament last month that caused him to miss the season’s first four games.

Abu played three games in three days for the Wolfpack last week at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. He scored eight points with eight rebounds in 17 minutes in his season debut in the Wolfpack’s 90-84 win over Arizona on Nov. 29. The next day, when N.C. State lost 64-60 to Northern Iowa, Abu played 20 minutes while scoring four points with four rebounds.

Last Friday, Abu scored three points with eight rebounds in 17 minutes when Tennessee beat N.C. State, 67-58.

Hicks played in N.C. State’s first four games, all wins at home, averaging 4.3 points and 3.0 rebounds. He did not play in the three games in the Bahamas.

The injuries mean N.C. State has only nine healthy players available to play. The Wolfpack started forward Lennard Freeman along with guards Torin Dorn, Braxton Beverly, Markell Johnson and Allerik Freeman.

This story was originally published November 29, 2017 at 7:21 PM with the headline "N.C. State basketball shorthanded for Wednesday night’s game with Penn State."