NC State Beats Wake Forest 85-73, Scores Most Points In A Game Since Dec 22nd

February 22, 2025 

Raleigh, NC- Paul McNeil made his first collegiate start, scored 24 points, Dontrez Styles added 22 points and NC State beat Wake Forest 85-73 on Saturday afternoon at the Lenovo Center. 

McNeil, a freshman from Rockingham, N.C., scored 17 points in the second half including a 3-pointer for a 10-point lead heading into the final minute. His dunk finished the scoring and he was mobbed by teammates as they left the floor. 

McNeil and Styles each hit four 3-pointers and Styles added 10 rebounds for his second double-double this season. Ben Middlebrooks scored 10 points. The Wolfpack (11-16, 4-12 ACC) was 13 of 32 from the arc and won for only the second time in 12 games. 

On the other side of Wake Forest, Cameron Hildreth scored 16 points, Tre’Von Spillers 15, Hunter Sallis 13 and Efton Reid III 12 for the Demon Deacons (19-8, 11-5) in the loss. 

For the Wolfpack, Michael O’Connell passed out a career-best 13 assists and added nine points. O’Connell’s 13 assists are the most for an NC State player since Markell Johnson had 14 against Miami on Jan. 21, 2018. 

Wake Forest took its only second-half lead midway through on a Spillers’ 3-pointer. But a few minutes later N.C. State went on an 18-2 run capped by a Styles’ 3 before the final media timeout to go up 11 while Wake Forest went over eight minutes without a field goal. McNeil had a tip-in and a 3-pointer to open the game as the Wolfpack scored the first 11 points. The Demon Deacons immediately responded with 10 straight points. N.C. State led 40-34 at halftime. Wake Forest won in this season’s previous meeting, 77-59 on Jan. 4. 

Coaching Comments from NC State Coach Kevin Keatts:

“Give our guys a lot of credit. Obviously, when we left Carolina, we didn’t like anything about the way we played in the first half, but if there was silver lining, the silver lining was we played really, really good in the second half and then Paul McNeil played well. 

I wanted to shake the lineup up, and I looked at a couple of different situations and decided to insert Paul into the lineup. Obviously, proud of him. Career high, 24 points.  Dontrez Styles had a double-double. Michael (O’Connell) had 13 assists. I thought our defense was really, really good. It’s a good Wake Forest team. Obviously, we did a good job. I thought we were locked in. We just did not like the way we played on Wednesday. Obviously, I give these guys a lot of credit because they didn’t ask me a question after the game. It’s how do you get them up? We punched the clock every day, and no matter what the situation is, we look at it as a one-game situation. I’m proud of our guys for how we responded and played.” 

Wake Forest is set to host Virginia, while NC State travels north to play at Syracuse, both teams will play on Wednesday.