NC State men run away from Ole Miss for first Power Four win. What we learned
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NC State routed Ole Miss 76-62, earning first Power Four win and resume boost.
- Wolfpack defense held Rebels to 26 first-half points with disruptive defense.
- Paul McNeil hit six 3s for 19 points as the team produced balanced scoring and effort.
N.C. State will have a much merrier Christmas after picking up its first win over a Power Four opponent.
The Wolfpack closed its nonconference slate with a 76-62 win over Ole Miss (7-5) at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro.
The Wolfpack (9-4) played one of its most complete games, and certainly its best against a high major opponent, on Sunday afternoon. Its defense took a step forward, and, despite a pair of scoring droughts, the offense moved well and players hit shots when it mattered.
The four double-digit scorers popped off the stat sheet, but N.C. State showed more balance — and it received more contributions than just scoring — than the point totals indicate.
“I thought we had thought we had good balance today, led by [Paul McNeil],” N.C. State head coach Will Wade said. “I thought [Quadir Copeland] set the tone early in the game; did a good job and was really unselfish. I thought Tre [Holloman] played one of his better games, couple mistakes, but I thought he played well. It was one of our better performances.”
The Wolfpack’s well-rounded outing led to a 19-point halftime lead, which nearly stretched to 30 points midway through the second half.
N.C. State’s defense stepped off the gas after going up 28, and part of that was due to foul trouble. Its first half effort gave the team a relatively comfortable cushion, even when the Rebels out-scored the Wolfpack 36-31 after the break.
McNeil led the group with 19 points. Holloman and Copeland finished with 16 points each. Copeland also added seven rebounds and, for the second straight game, nine assists.
Alyn Breed struggled to find the hoop, but he tied his season high with six rebounds and added three assists and two steals.
Ole Miss guard Travis Perry led all scorers with a career-high 21 points.
In a time when winning big matters, the Wolfpack needed the victory. Wade previously lamented how his team hadn’t capitalized on opportunities to build its NCAA Tournament resume. (Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard believes the Wolfpack is good enough to make the tournament field.) Though Wade is not remotely satisfied with where the team is, he’s glad it picked up this victory.
“There’s no relief. We’ve got 18 league games and zero relief,” Wade said. “We’ve got to play better than we played today. We’ve got to get better every day. I’m happy we won. It’s great, but when we get back on the 26th, we’ve got massive amounts of work that we’ve got to do. We’ve got massive amounts of improvement that we have to make.”
First-half defense dominates
Will Wade’s postgame press conference rant on Wednesday could be boiled down to one thing: Effort. He didn’t feel like his team has consistently played with the physicality or awareness he expects. It looked a lot better on Sunday, in arguably its best overall defensive performance.
N.C. State held Ole Miss to 26 points in the first half, which is the second-lowest for an opponent this season. The Rebels missed nine straight shots early in the first half, creating a seven-and-a-half-minute scoring drought.
Beard complimented the Wolfpack’s defense, both its switching and in the post, which shut his team down for the first period and at the start of the second.
Part of the success came via the Wolfpack’s switching, which knocked the Ole Miss offense off balance. It took difficult and contested shots, struggled to get into a rhythm, and committed non-steal turnovers due to the inability to move on or off the ball. Sagnia blocked a shot and recorded a steal on a mid-air deflection, as well.
“We’ve got to have effort on every possession,” Wade said earlier in the week. “We have to dominate possessions, and we just get through possessions. Just hold on for dear life.”
It’s unclear what Wade told his team or what the accountability looked like in practice, but it worked well. Ole Miss entered the game as an underdog. None of the analytics, however, predicted the level of defensive intensity N.C. State showed, and it keeps setting the bar higher.
McNeil from 3 — again and again
After his record-setting 42-point performance against Texas Southern, it looked like it wasn’t going to be Paul McNeil’s day. The sophomore started 0-3 from the 3-point line, despite getting clean looks.
That changed seven minutes into the game. McNeil hit three in a row — they were part of a stretch in which the Wolfpack made six consecutive 3s — and finished with four in the first half.
He hit his fifth 3 with nearly 14 minutes remaining to give N.C. State a 28-point advantage.
McNeil finished 6 of 12 on 3s and six rebounds.
His performance comes days after hitting 11 3s against the Tigers, which ranks No. 1 in program history and tied the ACC for made 3s in a single game.
Turnovers plague Rebels, Pack
Both teams entered the game among the best in the country at limiting turnovers. The Wolfpack averaged 9.7 turnovers per game to rank in the national top 20, committing a turnover on 13.4% of its possessions. Similarly, Ole Miss averaged just 10.5 turnovers per contest on 15.7% of its possessions.
Based on the numbers, there should’ve been a combined 21 turnovers. Instead, N.C. State finished with 16 turnovers and the Rebels finished with 15.
Ole Miss was more efficient at capitalizing on those mistakes, too. It scored 25 points off the Wolfpack miscues. Comparatively, the Pack scored 17 points off turnovers.
About half of the turnovers were steals, so the respective defenses get credit for pressuring the ball. That aspect, however, will be one the Pack wants to clean up.
Lubin provides solid scoring effort
Ven-Allen Lubin received praise this season from the Wolfpack for his consistency. After snapping his eight-game streak of double digit scoring on Wednesday, Lubin returned to his scoring ways against Ole Miss.
The senior started the game 3-3 — the rest of the team went 2 of 10 from the field in the first eight minutes — and led all scorers with six points. One bucket came on a nifty spin move into the lane, but most were deliveries from effective passing. McNeil even got in the action by making the lob to Lubin inside for a dunk. The play gave N.C. State an 18-point lead.
He finished the first half with nine points, surpassing the seven points scored against Texas Southern.
Lubin scored 15 points on 7-8 shooting (87.5%). He led the ACC in field goal percentage (67.7%) and that should rise after another solid effort.
Entering the game, Lubin averaged 13 points on the season and 15.6 during his eight-game streak. His rebounding numbers will inevitably drop after finishing with two, but his teammates picked him up in that area.
“We coached against him before last year in the tournament,” Beard said, referring to when Lubin was with North Carolina. “He’s kind of a double-double guy. He doesn’t force, but at the end of the game, it’s 15 and eight.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM.
