2nd-half 3-pointing burst helps NC State upset No. 23 Wake Forest 68-54

NC State upsets No. 23 Wake Forest 68-54

RALEIGH, N.C. — Farnold Degand hit two 3-pointers in the decisive second-half run that helped North Carolina State beat No. 23 Wake Forest 68-54 on Saturday.

Tracy Smith scored 14 points to lead the Wolfpack (15-13, 3-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), who led the entire game but needed three straight 3s from Degand and Javi Gonzalez with about 6 minutes left to get firm control.

N.C. State snapped a five-game losing streak, earned its first league victory in a month and beat its instate rival in Raleigh for the fifth straight time.

It marked the second time this week the Wolfpack took a 10-point halftime lead against a team jockeying for position in the upper tier of the ACC standings. But unlike Wednesday night’s collapse against Maryland, N.C. State finished this one off for a desperately needed win.

Al-Farouq Aminu had 15 points and 14 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (18-7, 8-5), who have lost two straight.

The Wolfpack clung to a 48-41 lead before Degand took a feed from Dennis Horner and knocked down a straightaway 3 to push the margin to 10. Then, after a stop, Gonzalez knocked down a 3 from almost the same spot to make it 54-41.

Degand came through once more, answering a jumper from L.D. Williams with the team’s third straight 3 to give the Wolfpack a 57-43 lead with 4:07 left and send the home crowd into a roar. Wake Forest got no closer than 10 points from there.

It was a miserable afternoon for the Demon Deacons, who hadn’t lost a game in nearly three weeks before blowing an 11-point lead at Virginia Tech on Tuesday night. Things got worse Saturday, with Wake Forest shooting just 35 percent and going 0 of 12 from 3-point range while committing 23 turnovers.

The 3-point shooting was a notable stat for both teams. It was the first time Wake Forest hadn’t hit a 3 since beating Tulane in February 1992, ending a streak of 575 straight games. For N.C. State, it marked the first time an opponent didn’t make a 3 since Maryland failed to do it in a Wolfpack win in January 1990, a streak of 633 games.

The offensive numbers weren’t all that pretty for N.C. State, but they were good enough on this day considering the Demon Deacons’ struggles.

N.C. State shot 40 percent while Smith found himself hounded by persistent double teams in the paint. But the Wolfpack got a boost from C.J. Williams, who finished with 12 points and knocked down two 3-pointers in the second half after going just 2 of 17 from behind the arc since mid-December.

Degand finished with 13 points, Gonzalez scored 11, and Horner had 10 points and 12 rebounds.

N.C. State hadn’t won an ACC game since its upset of Duke on Jan. 20, a game that seemed to signal that the Wolfpack might be ready to put up a strong fight in the league. Instead, they had lost seven straight conference games, with six coming by at least nine points and two against struggling rival North Carolina — which has just three league victories.