The NC State men’s basketball and its four seniors ended the regular season with a huge 84-64 win over Wake Forest. With the ACC Tournament next week and NCAA Tournament chances on the line, this win adds more weight to the Wolfpack’s resume heading into the tournament.

The Wolfpack (19-12, ACC 10-10) previously won against the Demon Deacons (13-17, ACC 6-14) in December with a nine-point margin. This time around, however, the Pack improved, winning by 20.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we’ve got depth,” said NC State head coach Kevin Keatts. “Most of those games … we were playing seven guys. We wore down because we didn’t have much depth.”

The bench scored a total of 40 points, the majority coming from redshirt junior forward D.J. Funderburk with 19 points, a team high. He also ended the night with seven rebounds, working extra hard on the glass, as redshirt freshman center Manny Bates was out with a knee injury.

NC State honored its four seniors in this game: guard Markell Johnson, forward C.J. Bryce and graduate forwards Pat Andree and Danny Dixon. All four made the starting lineup along with redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels.

For Dixon, this was his first start for NC State, and he made an impact, scoring 10 points, a career high. Dixon easily pumped up the crowd, which chanted his name during his appearances on the court.

The first five minutes were pretty even, going into the first timeout with a 13-10 Wake Forest advantage. Then junior guard Braxton Beverly started his onslaught of points, sinking two 3-pointers coming out of the under 16 timeout.

“It felt good,” Beverly said. “I have been constantly working, trying to get back to the regular games I used to have.”

The Wolfpack continued with its momentum and gathered a 24-7 run, pushing the score to 34-20. Beverly continued to hit everything, nailing two more 3-pointers. He ended the half 6 for 6 from the field and 4 for 4 from 3 for a total of 16 points.

The Pack led the Deacons 44-31 at the end of the half, gathering this 13-point lead with plenty of assists from Johnson. He ended the half with seven assists and eight points.

Johnson hit his third 3-pointer just three minutes into the second half to give the Pack a 50-35 lead. Beverly came up with his third steal of the night leading to a fast-break dunk from Daniels. This was one of the key plays on the Pack’s 6-0 run with just 14 minutes left in the game.

Wake Forest followed the Pack’s run with one of its own, scoring nine straight points and bringing the score to 62-52. The run was then stopped by a Funderburk layup with a little over seven minutes left in the game. The Pack dominated the final minutes of the game. Following Funderburk’s layup, the Pack went on to outscore Wake Forest 20-12 in the final 7:11 to win the game 84-64.

Johnson finished his final home game for State with a double-double, scoring 13 points and adding 10 assists. He was also credited with four total steals, along with other forced turnovers, continuing to threaten both sides of the court.

“I feel like it’s going to help us a lot,” Johnson said. “We are not going in with the mindset of, ‘We just lost’; we are going in with the mindset of, ‘We just won by 20.’”

Bryce ended his last regular-season game with 11 total points and six rebounds. He enjoyed the win and looks forward to the ACC Tournament.

“For the team, it’s very special,” Bryce said. “We just want to build off it and get ready for Greensboro next week.”

NC State’s next game will be against the winner of North Carolina and Pittsburgh on Wednesday, March 11 at 9 p.m. in Greensboro Coliseum.