Quick hits from NC State’s win over Detroit Mercy

Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s 84-65 win over Detroit Mercy in front of 13,430 fans at PNC Arena Sunday evening:

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A couple of early three-pointers by Detroit Mercy gave the Titans a 6-3 lead, but fifth-year senior guard C.J. Bryce quickly changed that. He had a steal that resulted in a fast-break layup and then he made a three-pointer.

With that, NC State led 8-6 with 17:15 left in the first half and never relinquished the advantage.

Beverly set a new career high with his 23 points, and it was clear from the get-go that he exited his pregame warm-ups feeling good.

He made the opening three-pointer of the game about five seconds into the contest, connected on his first three tries from beyond the arc and concluded the evening making 6 of 8 from long range, which was a new personal best for made threes in a game.

In his career debut, the redshirt freshman center blocked five shots against Georgia Tech during an overtime loss Tuesday night. One game later, he already had set a new career high with seven rejections.

Bates’ 12 blocks already puts him a quarter of the way to breaking J.J. Hickson’s school record for most rejections by a freshman (47 in 2007-08). His seven blocks tied five other players for sixth most ever in a game by a Wolfpack player.

In his season debut, Johnson did not shoot well (1 of 8 from the field), but he offset that with some good passing against Detroit Mercy’s zone defense. Johnson had 10 assists with only three turnovers in 35-plus minutes of action.

In the process, Johnson moved past former State guards Nate McMillan (1985-86) and Cat Barber (2013-16) into eighth place all time on the school’s career assist list with 407. Curtis Marshall (430 from 1992-96) is next in the rankings.

Entering the year, a full season was likely to put Johnson into third place when all is said and done, behind Chris Corchiani (1,038 from 1988-91) and Sidney Lowe (762 from 1980-83).

NC State did not play, for the second straight game, redshirt junior center DJ Funderburk, who is still serving an indefinite suspension. Also not playing Sunday was redshirt sophomore forward A.J. Taylor, who had played just 2:53 in the season-opening overtime loss to Georgia Tech on Tuesday evening.

Head coach Kevin Keatts said after the game that Taylor sat for personal reasons.

Keatts also changed his starting lineup. Johnson’s return meant that redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels came off the bench. Sophomore forward Jericole Hellems got the start as well over Pat Andree, who started the opener.

Former NC State players BeeJay Anya and Terry Henderson as well as former assistant coach Larry Harris were seen courtside.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari was also in attendance to watch his son, Detroit guard Brad Calipari, play. The younger Calipari missed all four shot attempts he took, all three-point attempts.

We keep track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:

First half

20:00-15:59: NC State 13, Detroit 6

15:59-10:16: NC State 12, Detroit 9

10:16-7:26: NC State 8, Detroit 6

7:26-3:39: Detroit 7, NC State 6

3:39-Halftime: NC State 4, Detroit 2

Second half

20:00-15:53: NC State 6, Detroit 4

15:53-11:52: NC State 9, Detroit 7

11:52-7:52: NC State 6, Detroit 2

7:52-4:03: Detroit 13, NC State 10

4:03-Final: NC State 10, Detroit 9

Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.

Bryce: 19.8

Beverly: 18.2

Daniels: 9.9

Bates: 8.1

Johnson: 3.9

Hellems: 3.7

Andree: 3.3

Fifth-year senior center Danny Dixon: 0.3

Freshman Chase Graham: -0.7

Freshman Max Farthing: -1.8

Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.

• Beverly +19 (34:47 minutes played)

• Johnson +17 (35:06)

• Hellems +17 (28:24)

• Bryce +17 (28:17)

• Bates +14 (21:05)

• Daniels +9 (23:36)

• Andree +5 (18:53)

• Dixon 0 (4:54)

• Graham 0 (2:23)

• Farthing -3 (2:35)

NC State is 1-1, while this was Detroit Mercy’s opener. The Wolfpack improves to 3-0 all time against the Titans, with all the games having been played in Raleigh. This is the first time, however, NCSU has won by double digits over Detroit.

The game was broadcast on RSN. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks:

- RSN: 1-0

- ACC Network: 0-1

We will also track NC State’s record by month:

- November: 1-1

• NC State had a 28-20 edge in points in the paint.

• The Wolfpack had an 18-11 advantage in fast-break points.

• Detroit Mercy won the battle on the boards, 40-33 overall and 11-5 on the offensive glass. That led to the Titans winning second-chance points 12-4.

• NC State won the turnover margin 15-11 and points off turnovers 11-10.

• Defensively, NC State had seven blocks (all by Bates), altered three shots and nabbed five steals. Detroit had three blocks, seven altered shots and six steals.

• NC State led for 37:37, Detroit for 1:35 and the game was tied for 1:48. The Pack’s largest lead was 22 and Detroit’s was three.

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