GAME NOTES: The NC State Wolfpack and Cincinnati Bearcats square off Tuesday at PNC Arena with conference play on the horizon.

Both teams play conference opponents on Saturday, as Cincinnati opens American Athletic Conference action against SMU, while NC State, which already has an ACC win over Wake Forest, hosts Pittsburgh.

Cincinnati opened the season 5-0 before splitting its next six games, including a 72-48 throttling of Wagner last Tuesday. Kevin Johnson led four Bearcats in double figures with 11 points, while Octavius Ellis, Shaq Thomas and Quadri Moore each netted 10.

Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin was absent for a third straight game after a medical checkup revealed an unruptured aneurysm, and Larry Davis will continue serving as an interim head coach in Cronin's place.

Davis will be guiding a defense that ranks in the top-10 in the country in points allowed (54.5 ppg) and holds opponents to just 37.2 percent shooting. In fact, the Bearcats have not given up 70 points in 15 consecutive games dating back to last season. Ellis is an elite rim protector at 2.7 blocker per game, and Johnson showed his ability on the defensive side with four steals against Wagner.

On the offensive end, the Bearcats are gifted with a plethora of capable scorers but cursed with no elite ones. Ellis leads the way with just 9.5 ppg, while Troy Caupain is right behind at 9.0 ppg. The team is putting up just 61.8 ppg despite shooting at a solid 42.4 percent clip.

NC State also posted a win last Tuesday, though the Wolfpack needed to come back from 18 points down to get past Louisiana Tech in a 73-65 final. Trevor Lacey scored a game-high 20 points and three other Wolfpack players finished in double figures. Anthony Barber tallied 17 points, while Kyle Washington and Abdul-Malik Abu contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively, as the club bounced back from a loss at West Virginia.

After trailing 50-32 less than six minutes into the second half, the Wolfpack went on an 18-2 run to spark the turnaround. Louisiana Tech did not make a field goal in the final 7:47, and NC State sealed the win at the foul line.

Lacey netted 13 points in the final 12 minutes, upping his team-high season total to 18.0 ppg. The junior is shooting 51.0 percent from the field and 45.0 percent from three-point range and ranks second on the team in rebounds (5.2 rpg) and assists (3.6 apg). Ralston Turner (13.5 ppg) and Barber (12.2 ppg) are the second and third scoring options.

The Wolfpack have their own shot blocker in BeeJay Anya, who is swatting away 3.4 shots per game, good for sixth in the nation.

NC State leads the series against Cincinnati, 6-2, and owns a 3-0 mark at home. Cincinnati, though, won last season's meeting 68-57, and continues to keep opponents from lighting up the scoreboard. Whether they can stop Lacey is an entirely different story, however.