Weds January 8, 2025
Notre Dame travels to Raleigh to take on the NC State Wolfpack Wednesday night. Both teams are coming into this game on a two game losing streak.
The Fighting Irish are coming off a one point loss to UNC as they were up 73-70 with 14 seconds left in the game before fouling the Tarheels up three and went downhill from there.
As for the Wolfpack, they are coming off a 77-59 loss to Wake Forest where their largest lead was just one point and NC State had 13 turnovers while shooting 40% from the field in the loss.
Key Points:
NC State The Wolfpack have done a lot of losing lately as well losing three of their last four games. Despite the losses piling up, you can’t say the Wolfpack haven’t been battle tested having played Kansas, Texas, Purdue and BYU.
Marcus Hill leads NC State in scoring at 12.6 points per game and overall the team scores an average of 73 points per game shooting 32.2% from 3 point territory. NC State as a team leads the ACC and ranks 33rd in the NCAA in turnover margin at +3.7, but the Wolfpack have committed more turnovers than their opponents in the last two games. To win this game NC State must score in the paint as they are 8-1 this season when scoring more points in the paint than the opponent, but 0-5 when being outscored in the paint.
Notre Dame The Fighting Irish have lost their last two ACC games vs Georgia Tech and North Carolina. Notre Dame started the season 4-0 but are 3-7 over their last ten games.
Notre Dame has a legit trio of guards this season in Braeden Shrewsberry (4th in the ACC in 3PT%, Markus Burton voted All-ACC first team in the preseason, and Matt Allocco who is 2nd in the ACC in assist/turnover ratio. Collectively the three guards average 45 points per game, 11 rebounds, 9.2 assists, and average 38.1% from 3 PT. Each player has scored 20 points or more in a game this season.
The Irish have a 6-3 record in Raleigh.The last two games have been decided by five points or less. NC State has won six of the previous ten meetings vs the Fighting Irish. The overall series is tied at 10 as this will be the 21st all-time meeting between these teams.
Markus Burton leads Notre Dame in scoring at 18.9 points per game and 4 assists per game. Kebba Njie is their leading rebounder averaging 5.8 per game. Tae Davis has been balling as of late averaging 20 points per game last month and producing 20 or more points in three of his last four games. Davis has a career best eight straight games in double figures.
Both of these come into Wednesday searching for a key victory. NC State is coming off of last season’s Final Four run just searching for momentum. Notre Dame lost 13 ACC games last year but the average margin of defeat was just 8.0 points. Now back at full strength, the Fighting Irish fans have a fun 48 hours ahead of them with basketball at NC State and then Thursday night’s College Football Playoff Semifinal game vs Penn State at the Orange Bowl.
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