WINSTON-SALEM — NC State basketball character was put to the test Saturday, and the Wolfpack showed the moxie to rally past Wake Forest for an important victory.
NC State faced adversity throughout the game on the road — trailing by as many as 10 points — but pulled out the important Quadrant I victory 79-77 on Saturday.
Both teams had creative scoring guards, but Wake Forest simply didn’t have an answer for redshirt junior center D.J. Burns.
The 6-foot-9, 275-pounder has carried the Wolfpack offense for stretches this season, but never for a full game. Burns finished going 14-of-26 from the field for a career-high 31 points, plus nine rebounds to put the Pack on his back. The Wolfpack improved to 17-5 overall and 7-4 in the ACC.
“We went into a timeout and [NC State] Coach [Kevin] Keatts said he didn’t want to see me be timid, and to stay aggressive,” Burns said. “He promised it would work out, and that is exactly what happened.
“Once I got going, it felt like it was going to keep going. I had zero intention of stopping.”
The “Walking Bucket” crushed his previous season-high for points (18) and shot attempts (16).
“He does that in practice,” NC State sixth-year senior point guard Jarkel Joiner said. “It doesn’t matter who guards him. He’s a natural born scorer.
“He played big-time today.”
Burns had 23 points in the second half, and the rare time he was double-teamed, he kicked it out to freshman guard L.J. Thomas for the corner three-pointer. Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes knew what Burns could accomplish going into the game, and elected to send single coverage against him.
“I know we got 14,000 people who think they can coach and telling me to double team the post,” Forbes said. “You see what happened when we did that? We watched film after film after film of this guy. He can pass. He’s a great passer.”
Burns was especially needed with NC State sophomore shooting guard Terquavion Smith saddled with foul trouble throughout the game. However, Smith made the game-clinching drive with 38 seconds left to put the Wolfpack up 77-74.
Where Wake Forest did have a big advantage was at the free-throw line. NC State struggled at the line, going 7 of 16, while the Demon Deacons went 18 of 22. Most of WFU’s free throws came in the first half, coinciding with Smith getting three early fouls and being limited to seven minutes.
Without Smith, the Wolfpack offense was a steady dose of either dumping the ball inside to Burns or Joiner trying to create something on the perimeter. Joiner was second on the Wolfpack with 17 points.
“Our message to our guys the entire game was to just hang in there,” Keatts said. “Just give us a chance. Just hang around.
“I don’t think things went our way in the first half. We missed shots. We got in foul trouble. We struggled to score and it started in the first half.”
NC State shot just 33.3 percent in the first half, but came out on fire in the second half. The Wolfpack shot a blistering 19-of-30 from the field for 63.3 percent — due in part to Burns — and had 48 points after halftime. Forbes was particularly upset about that final statistic.
“It is very disappointing to give up 48 points in the second half,” Forbes said.
Wake Forest rode the hot hand of Damari Monsanto, who wasn’t afraid to fire from deep. He led the Demon Deacons with 22 points and three three-pointers, and senior guard Tyree Appleby put pressure on the Wolfpack defense with 18 points and seven assists. The Demon Deacons fell to 14-8 overall and 6-5 in the league.
NC State returns to action at 9 p.m. Wednesday with struggling Florida State coming to PNC Arena. NCSU has won six of its last seven games.
“This was the reason I came here, to win big games like this [Wake Forest],” Joiner said. “This was a big game tonight. We came together and won.”
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