NC State is trying to take advantage of its extra time afforded by playing one game during an 11-day span.
The Wolfpack returned to the court Friday to put away Charleston Southern 87-53 in front of 12,331 fans at PNC Arena.
NC State only plays one game between Nov. 11 and Nov. 22, returns to the court next Thursday against Vanderbilt at 10 p.m. in Las Vegas, Nev. The players will play Vanderbilt and then either Arizona State or BYU during the two-day event.
“It is so early and the way these schedules are set up, you either are going to play a lot of games early, and then have a break somewhere around Thanksgiving,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said. “For our situation, we have three, but when we start and get to Vegas, from that point on, it will be like an NBA schedule.
“You do have a chance to work on and do have a chance to work forward [during this stretch]. We have a chance to work on some things.”
Senior guard D.J. Horne had 18 points and got streaky hot in the second half against Charleston Southern.
“Once I saw the first one go in, the basket gets wider and wider with each shot,” Horne said.
The former Arizona State standout has his thought on who he hopes to play in Las Vegas, but knows it is about taking care of business.
“I think we will have a pretty good showing out there, but we just have to stay locked in and keep our heads level,” Horne said. “I don’t want to get to talking too early, and we have to worry us, NC State, but if things align like they do, that will probably be my championship of the year.”
Horne has played five games in Las Vegas between a pair of Pac-12 Tournaments in 2022 and 2023, and a big 73-71 win over Creighton last year. He went 9 of 31 on three-pointers and had a combined 71 points in the five games, including 21 against Stanford in 2022.
“I don’t want to jinx myself, but I think I like Vegas and Vegas loves me,” Horne said.
NC State clung to a 18-17 leads with 8:53 left in the first half, and that was mostly due to Charleston Southern not being able to handle the press. The Wolfpack were playing hard, but maybe not completely engaged in the game. That changed in a big way down the stretch.
NC State went on a 19-0 run to build a commanding 37-17 lead, and it was done with four different players scoring. NCSU senior center D.J. Burns put a punctuation mark toward the end of the run with a nifty spin move and dunk, and he had eight of the 19 points.
Another hallmark of the run coincided with NC State playing four guards and Burns. Point guard Michael O’Connell and wings Jayden Taylor and Casey Morsell combined for 11 points during the run.
NC State caused an impressive 13 turnovers and only had two themselves in the first 20 minutes, leading to a 42-23 halftime lead.
“Offensively, we weren’t clicking but the defense was inserted into the game,” Keatts said. “We spent a lot of time on Monday really getting better at our press. That was the advantage of having a few days off. I thought it paid off for us.”
Burns had 14 points of his 16 points at halftime, combining some nice mid-range jumpers with drives toward the paint
With Burns working so well in the mid-range and the team getting fastbreak points off the turnovers, it more than made up for going 1 of 9 from three-point land and not reaching the penalty to get extra opportunities at the free-throw line in the first half.
NC State will have momentum going into Las Vegas. Burns last played in Las Vegas when he was in middle school. He knows he’ll be playing on Thanksgiving, but hopes someone saves him one thing next week.
“I want to win some games and we’ll have nearly a whole week off before it,” Burns said. “I’ll just be happy and thankful for whatever I’ll get — I do like the turkey…probably dark meat.”
Charleston Southern fell to 2-2, with both wins against non-Division I opponents.
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