Beverly, Freeman leads NC State past No. 2 Arizona

By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher

The North Carolina State Wolfpack defeated No. 2 Arizona Wildcats on Wednesday night. The Wolfpack won 90-84 in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis tournament at Imperial Arena at Atlantis Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas.

The Wolfpack improved to 5-0 on the season. The Wildcats fell to 3-1.

Braxton Beverly (Photo by the North Carolina State Sports Information Department)

This is the Wolfpack’s first win over a Top 5 program since 2015. That year, N.C. State defeated then No. 2 Villanova Wildcats.

The Wolfpack basically had the lead in the game throughout. N.C. State outscored Arizona 39-6 in bench points.

N.C. State also went 8-20 from three-point range compared to Arizona’s 2-17, including 0-8 in the second half.

Allerik Freeman led the Wolfpack with 24 points. Braxton Beverly, a freshman, who missed the first two games of the season due to an NCAA eligibility dispute, as he attended summer classes at Ohio State, before transferring to North Carolina State, had a season-high 20 points.

Late in the contest, with 4:19 left in the game, Beverly made a three-pointer for the lead, as a part of a 13-1 run for the Wolfpack. N.C. State was up 86-76 with 1:48 when the run ended.

Allonzo Trier had a huge second half, as he scored 24 points. He had 27 points in the game, tying his teammate Deandre Ayton for the game-high.
Ayton also had 14 rebounds.