NC State’s emergency pick-up game against Saint Louis on Thursday night was the Pack’s first real test of the season. It lost, but being down a SLU of players, including two critical contributors, it’s hardly an indictment of the team.
State was without D.J. Funderburk and Cam Hayes, but still actually led for most of the game before it burned out down the stretch. The Pack got big contributions from Braxton Beverly and Manny Bates, the latter of which was great for most of the night and racked up a SLU of blocks in the first half.