In the midst of a challenging season, North Carolina State may be able to find a silver lining in the form of Paul McNeil.
Coming off their best performance of the season, McNeil and the Wolfpack visit Syracuse in Atlantic Coast Conference action on Wednesday.
McNeil, a freshman guard, ranks ninth on North Carolina State in scoring, averaging just 4.0 points per game. Prior to the last couple of weeks, he had only played sparingly this season — just three games with double-digit minutes.
However, he received a larger opportunity in losses to Louisville and North Carolina earlier this month — and he performed well in each contest. Then he truly took his game to a different level in Saturday’s win over Wake Forest.
McNeil poured in 24 points in that one (nearly twice his previous career high) as the Wolfpack (11-16, 4-12 ACC) topped the Demon Deacons, 85-73.
“He’s grown,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. “If you had seen him the first month or two — a talented high-school scorer but couldn’t guard anybody, didn’t have any interest in guarding anybody and really wasn’t making his shots, wasn’t in shape. But the maturity he’s shown, getting better, growing through practice. I’m happy for him and I trusted him with the way he was playing.”
Meanwhile, Dontrez Styles authored his second straight strong performance in that game, notching 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Keatts and Styles certainly will be a focus of the defensive game plan for Syracuse (11-16, 5-11), which enters on a three-game losing streak. The Orange blew a 16-point lead in Tuesday’s 80-69 defeat against Pittsburgh, as Chris Bell’s 23 points on 7-of-12 3-point shooting went to waste.
The team’s issues in that one included overall shooting (38.3 percent), turnovers (14) and fouling (21 fouls that resulted in 24 free-throw attempts by the Panthers).
“We just make those mistakes that, you know, sometimes are just kind of a head scratcher,” Orange coach Adrian Autry said.
This is the first meeting between the teams this season. They squared off three times a season ago with Syracuse winning twice in the regular season before NC State prevailed in the ACC tournament.
