Darrion Williams’ 22 points helps NC State overcome shaky defense to beat BC

While inconsistency remains the name of the game for N.C. State men’s basketball, even when playing the worst team in the ACC, the Wolfpack did fight through it to post a win on Tuesday night.

The Wolfpack defense struggled to fully contain Boston College but posted a 79-71 win at Conte Forum behind 22 points from Darrion Williams. It was the first true ACC road win in 669 days, when it defeated Clemson, 78-77, on Feb. 17, 2024.

Ever since the first week of the season, NC State coach Will Wade has talked about the team needing to guard the ball better. That’s still an issue, despite being more than halfway through the regular season.

“We’ve got to be able to guard the ball better,” Wade said again on Monday during the weekly ACC media call. “Our defensive emphasis has been guarding the ball one-on-one. We haven’t guarded the ball very well, which has put us in rotation and put us in some really, really tough situations. That’s been our emphasis, and we’re going to need to certainly be better defensively than we’ve been.”

N.C. State (11-5, 2-1 ACC) struggled at times to contain Boston College (7-8, 0-2), which entered the night the ACC’s worst in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. The Wolfpack seemingly lost track of the ball’s location, both giving up open 3s and easy dunks. Alyn Breed, who has been aggressive on defense for N.C. State, was beat on multiple plays that led to points.

The Pack defense was particularly frustrating because it didn’t seem to matter when or where the shots were coming from. The Wolfpack gave up easy, uncontested 3s. It struggled to get back in transition, leading to aforementioned dunks.

Wade credited BC, calling it one of the best defenses his team has played and was in good spirits after the game, despite the breakdowns.

“We’re the only high major team to score over 70 in regulation this year,” Wade said. “A great defense.”

Fred Payne blitzed the Wolfpack defense, scoring 24 points on 7-13 shooting, after shooting 1 for 13 — and 0 for 7 from distance — against Georgia Tech. His 24 points tied his career high. Boston College, a 39.4% shooting team for the season, shot 51.1% against N.C. State.

“We do that every game where we give somebody a career high,” Wade said. “He played really well, but we did a pretty good job on [Donald] Hand, for the most part, which was really important.”

Even in the half court defense, all of the bigs were out-worked in the lane by Boden Kapke. His size advantage, allowed him to shoot over the Pack defenders or draw double-teams to create open shots elsewhere on the floor. Scottie Ebube was arguably the most efficient, scoring four points in four minutes during the first half.

N.C. State’s rebounding was, frankly, terrible for most of the night as Boston College won the rebounding battle, 33-27.

The other part of the equation came in the ball pressure, where the Pack excelled. N.C. State forced 12 first-half turnovers and turned those into 13 points. Through all 40 minutes, it forced 16 turnovers and scored 16 points from the miscues while recording 11 steals.

It also held Donald Hand, BC’s leading scorer, to four first-half points on one field goal and a free throw. Hand, who averages 15.6 points per game finished with 14 points.

The Wolfpack shot 50% after halftime to get the win, despite its inconsistent defense.

“In the second half, the defense is away from our bench, so the as a staff, we can’t communicate as much,” Wade said. “The first half wasn’t perfect, but it was a little bit better than that, so we’ve got to be able to lift our communication with the defense. I thought our guys did communicate pretty well for the game. I thought we had pretty good energy, thought we had good juice to us, especially in a different environment than usual in the ACC. That presents some different challenges, but really we just gotta lift our communication. We have to improve that.”

Here are other observations from the N.C. State win:

Williams finds his shot

Darrion Williams has faced plenty of criticism for his lack of scoring in recent games. That was not an issue for the Texas Tech transfer against the Eagles in the late night matchup.

Williams started the game 3 of 4 from the field and went into halftime with 12 points, including a pair of 3s. His first-half total surpassed his full game scoring in the last three games and seven of the last eight games played. He scored 17 points in the 77-76 overtime loss to Kansas but had not scored more than 11 in the remaining contests.

“It’s frustrating, obviously,” Williams said. “I hate missing I’m a perfectionist when it comes to basketball, but my teammates never gave up me, and Coach kept telling me to shoot. That’s all I really needed. Tonight, they were falling, and I’ll try to build from that.”

Wade said the team also made a more concerted effort to put the ball in Williams’ hands, which it hasn’t consistently done.

Williams led the team in scoring with 22 points on 8 of 18 shooting and four 3s. It was his first 20-point game since Nov. 17 against VCU.

The forward led the team in scoring all season before dropping behind Paul McNeil and Quadir Copeland following Saturday’s loss to Virginia. McNeil and Copeland entered the game scoring 14.1 points per game, with Williams sliding slightly to 13.7 points per game.

Holloman misses game with injury

Tre Holloman traveled to Chestnut Hill with the rest of the Wolfpack, but he did not play due to an injury. Holloman left N.C. State’s game against Virginia with an ankle injury.

Wade said on Saturday that the halftime X-ray did not show any fractures and the staff did not expect the injury to sideline him for very long. He said on Monday Holloman’s ankle — he was in a support boot Tuesday night — was improving.

“He’s in good spirits,” Wade said on Monday. “I don’t think it’s going to be anything too long term. … “We want Tre to play a major role. We’ve got a lot of guys who can start. We want Tre to play a major role and this injury’s a little bit of a setback.”

The Michigan State transfer averaged 10.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.4 rebounds in 15 games played. According to KenPom, Holloman holds a 114.5 offensive rating and ranks No. 5 on the team. Holloman is one of the Wolfpack’s more efficient scorers, hitting 43.5% of his 3-point attempts and 83.3% of his free throws.

He does not meet the national minimum of made 3-pointers and made free throws per game (2.5 in each category) to be ranked in the national statistics. Otherwise, Holloman would rank in the top 175 for free throw percentage and the top 30 for 3-point percentage.

Alyn Breed has stepped into a larger role over the last several games, even when Holloman came off the bench. Wade hopes he can be more consistent, especially in Holloman’s absence.

“Alyn stepped up and done some good things,” Wade added. “We need Alyn to be more consistent shooting the ball and making shots. That’s what Tre brings to the table for us. Tre does a really good job of making shots, and we need Alyn to make the open ones. He’s missed some open ones to start the last couple games, and so we need him to step up and make those.”

Arceneaux comes up clutch

Houston transfer Terrance Arceneaux deserves all of his flowers for keeping N.C. State in the game when things got tight.

Arceneaux started hot in the first half, recording a steal and making back-to-back 3-pointers to give N.C. State a 12-8 lead early. In the second half, the guard added another 3, maintaining his perfect streak from the arc. He finished with 12 points, two boards, a block and two steals.

“Playing against him the last two years, I know what he can do,” Williams said of his teammate. “Seeing him flourish and get more opportunities, it means a lot. Me and him are really tight. We joke around all day. I love the guy, and I’m happy he gets to show what he can do.”

Up to this point, Arceneaux has provided limited contributions. His best game this season came in the Wolfpack’s 83-73 win over Boise State at the Maui Invitational. He scored 11 points, pulled down four rebounds, dished out a pair of assists, blocked two shots and added three steals.

Arceneaux, however, was coming off a 2-point and 4-rebound performance against Virginia.

“[I’ve been] staying ready, waiting for my opportunity,” Arceneaux said. “I had a shaky start with the [achilles] injury and stuff like that — things weren’t going my way — but staying confident in myself, in my game.”

It’s been good to see the transfer settle into a role off the bench and provide positive contributions for the Wolfpack.

This story was originally published January 6, 2026 at 11:19 PM.

Jadyn Watson-Fisher

The News & Observer