NC State was wounded. The Wolfpack found the perfect salve in rolling past injury-hit rival UNC

By Canadian Press on February 17, 2026.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — N.C. State struggled through a humbling week that started with a 41-point beating at Louisville and ended with a final-minute collapse in a stunning home loss to Miami.

The Wolfpack team that rolled past No. 16 North Carolina 82-58 on Tuesday night looked nothing short of defiant, both in restoring order to a suddenly teetering season and sticking it to an injury-hit rival. It came in a perfect setting: in front of a feisty and boisterous home crowd, roaring in delight throughout the lone guaranteed meeting this season between the neighboring programs in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s new 18-game scheduling model.

“I thought we played with way more, kind of, bite to us tonight,” first-year coach Will Wade said.

Indeed, if the past week had been nothing short of a disaster, beating up on the Tar Heels — even with star freshman and high-end NBA prospect Caleb Wilson along with 7-footer Henri Veesaar sidelined by injuries — was the kind of savoring moment Wolfpack fans had in mind when Wade promised a “reckoning” for foes when he was hired last March.

But the past week — along with an unexpected home loss to Georgia Tech on Jan. 17 and a missed opportunity to beat now-No. 8 Kansas at home in December — had pushed this group onto shakier footing when it came to securing its berth in March Madness.

Instead, it set up perfectly for a highlight moment in Year 1 under the confident Wade.

Multiple highlights

Quadir Copeland overpowered UNC’s smaller guards, barking and flexing after multiple driving baskets.

Darrion Williams, the Texas Tech transfer and preseason ACC player of the year, shook off a hard fall that had him getting stitches above his left eye.

And post player Ven-Allen Lubin got a chance to beat his former team after playing for UNC last year. That included sporting a bedazzled N.C. State belt over his shoulder in a postgame news conference, a nod to Wilson’s prop featured in a Slam magazine preseason interview in which Wilson had talked about the Tar Heels “putting a belt to whoever we beat.”

“They were talking a lot of, ‘North Carolina schools this, North Carolina schools that,’ so it’s crazy how fast the tables turn,” Copeland said with a chuckle. “We bedazzled our belt too for them.”

That wasn’t Copeland’s only jab at the sidelined Wilson, a 6-foot-10 forward averaging team highs of 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds. Wilson is out indefinitely after suffering a fracture in his left hand last week on the heels of a thrilling win against Duke, and sat alongside Veesaar (lower-body injury) while wearing a protective blue splint as the Wolfpack rolled to a blowout win.

As the two met in the postgame handshake line, Copeland initially walked past Wilson, then turned back and said something to UNC’s star. Wilson turned back as though surprised, and the two continued talking at each other as Copeland made his way through the line before starting back to the Wolfpack’s tunnel.

What did Copeland say?

“I told him lace up next time,” Copeland said flatly.

Dominant Pack

Then again, Copeland earned the right to yap a little.

The 6-foot-6 point guard who started his career at Syracuse and played last year under Wade at McNeese State had 20 points, six rebounds and seven assists with no turnovers in 32 minutes. That included multiple times of simply driving at or backing down UNC’s guards to score in the paint.

The 6-6 Williams got off to his own fast start, backing down smaller UNC freshman Derek Dixon for a quick basket, hitting an elbow jumper and then knocking down a 3-pointer in the opening 4 minutes. Then came his scary fall when he fouled Jarin Stevenson while trying to defend in transition, with Williams hitting his face on the court and trainers needing multiple towels to tend to the bleeding near his left eyebrow.

When he originally returned from the locker room, he sported a fresh No. 34 jersey with no name on the back due to the amount of blood on his customary No. 1 jersey. He was back in the No. 1 by the second half.

“Straight dog,” freshman Matt Able said.

“He was getting ready to unload,” Wade said.

The Tar Heels, meanwhile, didn’t have nearly that resolve in their response.

“I just felt like our competitive fight wasn’t there,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “Especially from a defensive standpoint. They didn’t feel us defensively. They didn’t feel our presence at all.”

By the end, UNC had shot 31.7% while making just 5 of 33 3-pointers. And it marked the Wolfpack’s biggest margin of victory in the series since a 28-point win (85-57) in February 1962, according to College Basketball Reference.

“I thought our guys were locked in and ready to go,” Wade said. “I felt the last couple of days, we had a couple of good days of prep. The guys got off the mat. You talk about you’ve always got to do your best work in tough circumstances. Our guys certainly did that.”

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Aaron Beard, The Associated Press

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