Copeland, Lubin and McNeil rally N.C. State to 81-72 victory over Pitt

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Quadir Copeland scored 20 points and had nine assists, Ven-Allen Lubin had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and N.C. State beat Pittsburgh 81-72 on Saturday.

Paul McNeil Jr. added 15 points on five 3-pointers and along with Copeland and Lubin led a surge over the final eight minutes to send the Wolfpack (14-6, 5-2 ACC) to their fourth win in five games and seventh in their last nine. Tre Holloman added 10 points.

Roman Siulepa had 15 points and 13 rebounds, Cameron Corhen 10 points and 10 rebounds, Damarco Minor 13 points and Barry Dunning Jr. 12 for the Panthers (8-12, 1-6), who have lost five of their last six.

Trailing by four, Lubin scored to lead off a 12-0 run that Copeland and McNeil combined to finish for their first lead since the start of the half. ACC preseason player of the year Darrion Williams finished with only seven points but came off the bench with four fouls after the final media timeout to help maintain the cushion with four straight points.

Nojus Indrusaitis hit a 3 to cut the lead to seven with 35 seconds remaining but Lubin finished the scoring with an alley-opp dunk.

Copeland’s drive at the end of the first half had N.C. State up 34-33.

N.C. State made 22 of 27 free throws to just 11 of 25 for Pitt and outscored the Panthers 22-3 off turnovers to offset a 52-31 disadvantage on the boards.

Up next

NC State is home against Syracuse on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh is home against Wake Forest on Tuesday.

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball