After exiting with bloody face, Darrion Williams returns as Wolfpack whips UNC
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- Darrion Williams exited early with a bloody face, got stitches, then returned.
- At least six staffers cleaned blood at baseline and escorted Williams off.
- Williams, ACC Preseason POY, has seen scoring dip in recent games.
N.C. State’s Darrion Williams exited the Wolfpack’s contest against No. 16 UNC in the opening five minutes with a bloody face and had to receive stitches before returning later in the first half. He finished with 13 points on six-of-10 shooting in 16 minutes.
“It’s too bad he got hurt,” N.C. State coach Will Wade said after his team beat UNC, 82-58, on Tuesday night at Lenovo Center. “He was getting ready to go for a big game. I know he was getting ready to unload.”
“But, you know, he got banged up and came back,” Wade added. “Shows how much this game meant to him and meant to our guys. Very proud of him.”
Williams appeared to get tangled up while defending North Carolina’s Jarin Stevenson with 15:20 remaining in the first half. Williams landed flush on the side of his face on the court. Blood soon began to spill profusely.
N.C. State staff came to Williams’ side to tend to him and he was guided toward the locker room. Williams applied pressure to his face with a towel as he walked off.
It took at least six staffers to clean up the blood that had spilled on the baseline near the Wolfpack bench, many spraying cleaning solutions and carrying heaps of towel that had been used to clean up.
Williams received stitches in the team locker room, per a team spokesperson. With roughly nine minutes until halftime, Williams jogged out of the N.C. State tunnel and was greeted to thunderous applause from the home crowd. He checked back in at 8:05, this time wearing No. 34 on his jersey instead of No. 1 (presumably, due to the blood covering the latter).
After halftime, Williams returned to the bench wearing a fresh No. 1 jersey but was not in the Wolfpack’s starting five for the second half.
He re-entered the game with the 16:38 remaining in the game, but was not wearing his usual white headband.
Teammate Quadir Copeland called Williams a “warrior” after the game.
“Straight ‘dawg,’” added N.C. State freshman Matt Able, later adding, “We all saw him bleeding. It was pretty bad. And for him to come back out and, a couple minutes later, play just as hard as he was before he left... it’s like, ‘Look at D Will, he got stitches on his eye and he still out here playing.’”
Earlier this season, Williams had three straight 20-point games, including 25 points at SMU, with at least five made 3s in each one. In the last three games, he’s scored a combined 23 points and gone 4-of-18 (22.2%) from downtown. In three of the Wolfpack’s four ACC losses, Williams — named ACC Preseason Player of the Year — has been held to single digit scoring.
That was not the case on Tuesday night, as Williams scored 13 points — six of them coming in the second half, after his injury.
After the win, Wade said he and Williams had a long, 45-minute talk on Monday night. They texted more later that evening. Wade shared with reporters on Tuesday that he feels Williams is “in a really aggressive mindset to try to finish the year off right.”
“I feel very good about where he is with things,” Wade added.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 8:16 PM with the headline "After exiting with bloody face, Darrion Williams returns as Wolfpack whips UNC."