The NC State men’s basketball team returns to action on Saturday afternoon against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at PNC Arena.
The Wolfpack (15-7, 5-4) is fresh off a huge overtime win over rival UNC-Chapel Hill and will surely be looking for revenge against a Notre Dame team that beat the Pack by 30 earlier this month.
The Fighting Irish (13-9, 3-6) are in the midst of a six-game losing streak and are really feeling the effects of playing without superstar forward Bonzie Colson who has been out since Dec. 31 with a broken right foot.
Notre Dame is led by senior guard Matt Farrell who averages 15.7 points and 5.3 assists per game, and sophomore guard T.J. Gibbs, who puts up 15.7 points per game and is knocking down 3-pointers at a 40-percent clip.
Rebounding has been an issue for the Irish without Colson, the team’s best rebounder. Senior forward Martinas Geben leads the team with 7.9 rebounds per game, and is the only player on the active roster averaging more than 4.3 per game.
Notre Dame has struggled on defense as of late, allowing 74.3 points per game during its losing streak, while scoring only 66.3 points per game in that same stretch.
The Wolfpack is led by graduate transfer Allerik Freeman and sophomore center Omer Yurtseven.
Freeman is coming off a huge 29-point game against North Carolina that saw him hit all seven of his 3-point tries and is leading the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game. Yurtseven has shown major improvement in his second year and is averaging 13.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game on 61.4 percent shooting from the field.
Sophomore guard Markell Johnson has also been excellent running the Wolfpack offense as of late. Johnson has registered double-digit assists in three straight games, and just had a monster 20-point, 11-assist game in Chapel Hill against the Tar Heels.
NC State has been on fire on offense lately, putting up 77.9 points per game since its loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 3. With the way Notre Dame has struggled on defense, the Wolfpack will be looking to overwhelm the shorthanded Fighting Irish defense.
The 7-foot Yurtseven should be in for a big day against a Notre Dame team that has only one player taller than 6-foot-6 averaging over 15 minutes per game. Yurtseven put up 16 points and 13 rebounds and 28 points and six rebounds against similarly undersized North Carolina and Miami, respectively.
A win over Notre Dame would elevate the Wolfpack to fifth in the ACC, just a game back from Duke (whom the Pack hold the tiebreaker over) and a double-bye through to the quarterfinals in the ACC tournament.
NC State picked up a handful of votes in the most recent AP Poll and will look to continue its push for the NCAA tournament with a win over the Fighting Irish.
The game will tip off at noon at PNC Arena and can be viewed on ESPN.
Sophomore guard Markell Johnson drives inside and goes up for a quick basket. Johnson was a huge force handling the ball, and recorded a double-double with 20 points and 11 assists. The Wolfpack came away with the win in an overtime 95-91 thriller on Saturday, Jan. 27 in the Smith Center.
