After a two-week period with no games, NC State played its second contest in 48 hours Saturday in a 69-50 win over Campbell.

The Wolfpack (4-1) was outrebounded two-to-one Thursday in a 80-69 road loss to Saint Louis, and head coach Kevin Keatts admitted in his postgame press conference that rebounding was an area his team needed drastic improvement.

Crashing the boards was clearly a point of emphasis Saturday afternoon. The Pack outrebounded the Fighting Camels (4-2) 44-23 en route to its fourth non-conference win of the season.

“We went to the glass and we fought,” Keatts said. “My first key was rebound, and my second key was rebound, and my third key was toughness rebound, and we did that. That's what we had to concentrate on. Give those guys credit, from game to game when you don't do something well, to be able to come back out and rebound the basketball and that's one of the things that we wanted to do. It was a big emphasis.”

After grabbing just one board in 36 minutes Thursday night, fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels led the Wolfpack with eight rebounds in the win over Campbell. He also added 12 points and four assists.

“The whole season, the coaches have been really on that point for us,” Daniels said. “After Saint Louis, it was really huge. We've seen that we really got to take that initiative, get tougher down low and start grabbing boards so we can get out in transition. If you don't rebound, there is no transition. It's part of who we are. As a whole team, we are really focused on that area.”

Saturday marked the first time this season that NC State outrebounded its opponent.

The Wolfpack also beat Campbell 12-2 on the offensive glass and outscored the Fighting Camels 13-0 in second-chance points.

“That was definitely a point of emphasis this game,” redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates said. “We have struggled in the past rebounding the ball, so for us to be able to rebound it as well as we did tonight, it was definitely a good push for us to win.”

After struggling Thursday night with just six points on 2-of-9 shooting in what was a homecoming game for the St. Louis native, junior forward Jericole Hellems bounced back with one of his best performances of the season against Campbell.

Hellems led the team with a season-high 19 points. He also led the team with five assists and grabbed seven rebounds.

“I thought he mixed his game up,” Keatts said. “Jericole is a good player when he just doesn't settle for one thing. When you look at him tonight, he got to the free-throw line four times, which means he made aggressive plays. He took three three-pointers, he didn't settle by just taking a bunch of threes.

“He and I talked after the Saint Louis game about what his concentration should be. His concentration should be to come in and do the winning things, make winning plays. When you make winning plays, everything else will happen for you. Hopefully, he'll see that the way he played tonight.”

Despite the season-high scoring performance and leading the team with a plus-minus margin of 24 points Saturday, the 6-7 forward still thought there was room for improvement before the Pack begins ACC play against North Carolina on Tuesday.

“I feel good that we won the game,” Hellems said. “My performance was okay. I think there's still things that I need to work on and get better at. I'm just trying to take a game at a time and just keep learning.”

For the first time this season, Hellems played the role of a small-ball center for a stretch in the second half. When sophomore center Manny Bates picked up his fourth foul with over 14 minutes to play, Keatts went with a four-guard lineup that included senior Braxton Beverly, redshirt junior Thomas Allen, freshman Shakeel Moore, Daniels and Hellems.

“I'm just trying to figure out and fit in wherever I can help the team,” Hellems said. “Whenever we are down a couple of people, especially our five man, I'm just trying to figure out ways to impact the game in different positions.”

When the Wolfpack lost its first game of the season on the road to an experienced Saint Louis squad Thursday, many questioned why the team would play a game like that on short notice. Particularly considering the Pack hadn’t played in two weeks and had to compete with a short-handed roster due to COVID-19 cases within the program.

Keatts adamantly defended the decision to play Thursday night, explaining that his team needed to be challenged before entering the conference stretch next week and that NC State was not alone in its early struggles following a prolonged break.

“When you look around college basketball, it's so weird how people view things,” Keatts said. “Some people say you should play every game, no matter if your team has COVID or not. Then when you go play the game, some people say 'Well, why did you play the game?' I don't think you can have it both ways.

“In our situation, my kids wanted to play. The guys who were available to play, they wanted the opportunity to play. I'm glad we went to Saint Louis, that's a good basketball team. We're going to learn from that game. I could easily say 'Hey, if I had everybody, it could have been a different outcome.' We don't know that, but I'm excited that our guys play the way we play.

“We got great experience from that. If we don't play the Saint Louis game, maybe we don't play as well as we did in the second half this time because we're learning how to fight, it's still early in the year and we haven't played a lot of basketball. Most teams that come off of a break because of COVID are very flat.

“Just look at our league in general. If you want to report something, look at our league and realize guys can take so much time and come out flat. I think the only team that's really looked great after taking so much time off is probably Gonzaga. Everybody else has struggled a little bit.”

The Wolfpack head coach believes playing with a limited roster in the last two games will pay dividends down the road in a season that presents no guarantees.

“You learn a lesson in every game that you play,” Keatts said. “We didn't have a good second half at Saint Louis and then we didn't play a really first half here, but we were able to make adjustments and bounce back. This is such great experience for these guys because of the fact that they are playing so many minutes. Then we're getting some of these guys who normally may not play as much some opportunities to get in the game.

“I think we're learning a lot from those situations, and I'm happy with our guys who are playing. These guys are playing their butts off for me with a short amount of players to my availability. These kids want to play, so as long as they tell me they want to play, then I'm going to play games.”

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