NC State handles Coppin State, 94-72

NC State had a bit of pent-up frustration to get out of its system after what happened on Friday, and Coppin State had the misfortune of being the next team up. The Wolfpack got rolling very quickly in Reynolds Coliseum on Tuesday night, pouring 38 points on the Eagles over the game’s first 10 minutes.

After Terquavion Smith hit a couple shots early, it felt like a serious steamrolling might be coming, and for those 10 minutes, it did. Smith scored 19 of those 38 points, but he also got himself into foul trouble, and State’s offense cooled off substantially the rest of the half.

It wouldn’t really be fair to say that a 49-point half was disappointing, but that opening stretch really raised the bar. What can I say, it was hard not to dream about crazy numbers after that start.

And give Coppin State credit for taking that rather substantial punch and preventing the game from getting completely out of hand. The Eagles just kinda hovered in orbit the rest of the way, and they did manage to cut the margin down to 10 in the second half before a final State run put them away for good.

Baby T finished the night with 33 points on 12-21 shooting, and Jarkel Joiner had a hell of a bounce-back game in scoring 29 on 11-17 shooting. You could even see Joiner exhale a bit after making his first jumper of the night. With those two playing great, unsurprisingly, NC State’s offense had a very good game overall.

There were plenty of annoying aspects to this game, like all those offensive boards Coppin State got its hands on, or how many times NC State put those guys on the line, but Smith and Joiner made sure those things didn’t matter.