In the 240th meeting between the two schools, the NC State men’s basketball team defeated ACC and intrastate rival Wake Forest, 78-65, Saturday night in PNC Arena. The all-time record between the two teams now stands at 139-101, in favor of NCSU.
The Wolfpack (7-1, 1-0 ACC) overcame a sloppy first-half performance and came out firing on all cylinders in the second, with senior guard Ralston Turner and redshirt junior guard Trevor Lacey leading the way against the Demon Deacons (4-5, 0-1 ACC).
“Early on in the game, we struggled,” Turner said. “In the second half, we did a better job of running the offense.”
Known as a streaky shooter, Turner caught fire in the second period. The Muscle Shoals, Alabama, native went 7-for-13 from the field, including a pair of threes, and scored 17 of his 21 points after the intermission.
“When Ralston’s hot, get him the ball,” sophomore guard Anthony “Cat” Barber said. “It’s crazy, because Ralston can shoot the lights out of the ball.”
The first half was a dour affair between the two teams, as both the Wolfpack and the Deacons managed to shoot below 40 percent from the field.
If that wasn’t enough, neither team could get anything going from the charity stripe either. NC State shot a mediocre 69 percent from the line, while Wake Forest managed just a dismal 43 percent.
The Pack also continued this season’s main theme, lackluster interior offense, and was outscored 16-6 in the paint in the first period.
On the defensive side of the ball, State’s overzealousness going for blocks allowed a number of easy looks for the Deacs’ bigs. State’s post players frequently bit on up-and-unders, and it was only through poor finishing around the rim that prevented Wake from pulling ahead.
For the Wolfpack, Lacey once again answered in a time of need, and his seven first-half points combined with Barber’s eight gave the Pack a slim advantage, 31-28, at the end of a poor opening half of basketball.
State emerged after the intermission a different team, however, going on an 11-0 run, which featured three straight baskets from Turner, as well as renewed defensive focus.
“In the second half our energy, especially defensively, was a lot better,” NC State head coach Mark Gottfried said. “We turned those [defensive stops] into fast breaks that were very important to us.”
State outscored Wake, 21-10, on fast break points, a product of a defensive change that saw Barber apply greater pressure to the Demon Deacons’ go-to scorer, junior guard Codi Miller-McIntyre.
“[Barber] really fought over the top of the ball screens,” Gottfried said. “He was able to cut [Miller-McIntyre] off and they didn’t have that green light to run through the lane.”
However, it was the Pack’s improved half court offense that proved decisive in the contest, as State knocked down nearly 71 percent of its field goal attempts.
“We executed our offense a lot better in the second half,” Gottfried said. “We got good shots, and the right shots. We’re a team that’s still learning, a lot. We’re a work in progress. We’re nowhere near where I think we can be, but it’s nice to get an ACC win on a night where we started so sluggishly.”
Despite Wake making runs towards the middle of the second half, State would not give up its lead, although its advantage did dip to five at one point in the half.
Besides Ralston’s hot hand, Lacey was key to the team’s resurgence, scoring on 3-of-4 attempts and draining a pair of crucial free throws down the stretch while dishing four assists, including a spectacular long-range inbounds pass to freshman Caleb Martin for an emphatic slam with less than a minute remaining.
After a few Demon Deacon attempts to draw out the game with fouls proved fruitless, Barber dribbled out the remaining time to hand State its first ACC win of the season and tenth straight win against Wake Forest at PNC Arena.
The Wolfpack will take on Charleston Southern in its next game Friday at Reynolds Coliseum.
