NC State made its annual game at historic Reynolds Coliseum a little bit on the adventurous side.
Coppin State entered the game No. 363 in the NET — second to last — and leading scorer Derrius Ward is out with an injury.
NC State wasn’t threatened in the second half, but they also weren’t clicking on all cylinders, in a 66-56 victory Wednesday.
The lack of energy was obvious from the beginning, and coach Kevin Keatts noticed it by taking out four of five starters 2:49 into the game.
It took the Wolfpack 4:18 to score its point, a Mike O’Connell free throw, and freshman guard Treymane Parker got the first basket 5:17 into the game.
Coppin State 7-2 run to take a 17-8 lead with 12:06 left in the first half. From there, senior center Ben Middlebrooks tried to enforce his will, and he was complement by two three-pointers from sophomore forward Dennis Parker and some nice drives from senior shooting guard Marcus Hill.
NCSU finally took a lead for the first time, 23-21, on a Hill layup with 5:17 left in the first half.
“I’m an energy guy,” Keatts said. “One of the things — and I think guys who've covered me know this — you can miss every shot, not every shot, but you can miss most of the shots. But you have to play with great energy.”
Middlebrooks helped provide the energy and it resulted in offensive rebounds at one end and some blocked shot opportunities at the other. Middlebrooks got his third start of the season and had 10 of his 13 points in the first half, and added five rebounds and one blocked shot.
Styles had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Hill scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed five boards.
Styles bounced back in the second half after going 1 of 8 in the first half.
“He's [Styles] not hanging his head, he's still being aggressive,” Keatts said. “Early on in the year, when he would miss those shots, he would hang his head.”
Keatts was encouraged that Dennis Parker, who has been battling through ankle injuries, had 10 points and two three-pointers. Redshirt junior wing Mike James is doing better from his preseason knee scope, but still needs some time to return.
“I feel we came out sluggish, but I wouldn’t say we underestimated them,” Parker said. “Every person at this level is good, regardless of their record. We looked at their size and decided to play a little softer than usual.”
Middlebrooks is still tag-teaming the center position with senior Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, who continued being in a slump off the bench.
Huntley-Hatfield, O’Connell and senior shooting guard Jayden Taylor — all key cogs for NC State — combined to go 1 for 7 for four points in the game. Those are performances that have to change with playing at Kansas looming. Keatts said he plans to talk to some of the players coming up.
“I think guys just go up and down,” Keatts said. “With this group, I’m trying to get everybody to be consistent.”
Coppin State proved “scrappy” and had four players in double figures, but lacked three-point shooters (2 of 9).
“I thought they had a great game plan,” Keatts said. “I thought they came in saying, ‘Hey, we're not gonna try to play fast with these guys, we're gonna slow it down,’ and they ran most of the shot clock down.”
NC State plays at No. 10-ranked Kansas at 3:15 p.m. Saturday. The Jayhawks (7-2 overall) will have a week off, having lost two straight games at Creighton on Dec. 4 and at Missouri 76-67 on Dec. 8.
“At the end of the day, we just didn’t make some shots we made the other day [against Florida State last Saturday],” Keatts said.
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