NC State advanced to 12-9 overall and 8-8 in ACC play after a 65-62 win over Pittsburgh Sunday.

Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts answered questions from media members following the game.

Here is the full transcript from Keatts following the win:

"What a good grind-it-out game. I told our guys you're going to have to figure out how to win every entire game. Some games you could be up big, some games you might be down.

"I thought that was a great test for us because it was a back-and-forth. Not back and forth, but we got a pretty good sizable lead, and then obviously they fought back.

"When you look at our guys. I'm proud of the fact that this team is getting better defensively. When you hold another team under 40 percent, I think these guys for the night with 35 percent is a lot of good things that you can build on for that.

"If I had to give an MVP for the game, I thought it was Braxton Beverly, who came in and obviously made some big shots. We've talked a lot about how well our freshmen have grown up, but it was our upperclassmen that carried us tonight.

"It was Braxton, then Jericole Hellems, Manny Bates and DJ Funderburk. So we did some good things, going to build on it. I like the fact that we won three road games in a row, and then four total games in a row. That's a good sign for us at the end of February."

For the first time this season, you got to play in front of some students and fans. How good did that feel tonight?

"I thought it was great. I've walked out into that arena for four years now, and I get the weirdest feeling when I walk out there. Somebody tweeted earlier this year, 'hold up, the media room is the locker room? So when I walk by and I look going to the media room, I'm like, 'Man, this is weird.' I say it every time.

"For the first time I was going to talk to my team, I looked out there and I heard the cheerleaders, I saw students. It was a good thing, so I'm happy about it. I thought it was a great lift for us. It was good to see some folks back in the seats."

The field goals weren’t falling, but you hit some free throws and got some timely stops on defense. How important is it heading into tournament play to find different ways to win games like this?

"We wouldn't have won this game a month ago. Every team that you play in this league is going to present a different problem. I thought those guys did a good job of fighting. They got a lot of second-chance opportunities. They play with some toughness.

"Similar when you lose a couple players, you switch how you play, and they became more, 'Hey, I got to get on the offensive glass and do some different stuff.' That being said, it was good to see our guys figure out a way to win, figure out how to make some shots at the end, figure out how not to turn the ball over.

"This is the second or third game that we played a good game and didn't have a lot of turnovers. Some of our guys went to the line and finished some shots. We made shots where we needed to, but I thought the MVP of our team collectively was the way we played on the defensive end.

"We did a great job on Justin Champagnie. He's a guy who's caused a lot of problems for a lot of folks averaging around 18 points a game and we were able to hold him to 4-for-14 and that's tough because he's been playing well all year long."

When the shots aren’t falling, what’s your message to your players in the huddle?

"Keep defending. A lot of times when you're younger, and that's what happened to our younger guys today, you define how you playing well, your shot goes. Older guys just keep defending, you got to defend. If you're not scoring, they're not scoring.

"That's one of the things we talked about at halftime. At halftime they only had 21 points, and you could see the frustration on our guys faces because we only had 31 but we were up 10 and we defended."

You got to play Ebenezer Dowuona some minutes in the heat of a close game for the first time in ACC play. Can you evaluate his performance tonight?

"I thought he was great. Give James Johnson and Roy Robinson credit, they've done a lot of work with E.B. over the last couple of weeks, and he hasn't practiced well. He's been a freshman, he's been up and down, but what he did today was impressive.

"He had no idea that his name was going to be called. We were wearing warm ups, he probably would have not had his jersey on because he just didn't think he was going to play. But when he came in the game, the six-minute span that he played, we didn't get hurt.

"He actually played well, he made a basket, he played good defense, he rotated. I like what he brought to the table, and that'll make him feel good. Usually Jaylon Gibson would get those minutes. Jaylon's back was bothering him, so we decided not to play him today."

How would you assess Pitt’s ability to dominate the glass tonight?

"It can't happen again. We found a way to win. One of the things I always look at on the stat sheet is how many more shots do we get than the other team. Well they took 11 more shots because they got 20 offensive rebounds.

"We talked about, 'Hey, we won, here's the great positive things, here's what we got to clean up.' We can't give up 20 offensive rebounds. They did a tremendous job, they rebounded.

"A lot of those came from Manny and DJ rotating over and other guys getting rebounds where our guards didn't get inside, so the rebounding I'm going to blame on our guards. We got to do a good job of breaking down.

"I don't like when Manny Bates has six blocks in a game. To me, that means we're getting beat off to dribble too much. So if he has six, that means he altered 10."

Braxton talked about how he’s enjoying the mentorship role with some of the freshman guards as a senior coming off of the bench. Have you seen a direct impact from his mentoring that’s led not just to the growth of the freshman guards but also to the recent turnaround?

"He's been great. It's made our job as coaches a little bit easier. Those guys, when I say those guys Braxton, Manny, DJ, and even Jericole. They're always pulling these guys to the side. When we get on them or we praise them in practices as coaches, they're always, 'Hey man, don't worry about it, this is what you got to do to get better.'

"He's grown in a lot of ways. Whenever he stops playing basketball, you could see Braxton Beverly probably could get into coaching somewhere. He's been grateful. As you know, there's not another kid probably in the history of this program that has been criticized as much as Braxton Beverly, and at the end of the day, he's still fighting for us."

You’re now 7-0 against Pittsburgh during your four years at NC State. Why do you think you have so much success against the Panthers?

"I couldn't answer that. Jeff Capel has done a really good job with the program, and he's been dealt a crazy hand. I'm not inside the program, so I don't know if those couple guys have left the program, but at the end of the day I don't have an answer to that.

"Maybe we've been fortunate, but it's been great games and those games could have gone either way."

You said you wouldn’t have won this game a month ago. What makes you say that?

"Confidence. I think believing that you can win those games. Our confidence was shaken a month ago, we didn't know where we were at. These guys were all over the map when we had our situation with Devon trying to find our identity. We didn't have an identity.

"We had to refocus right in the middle of the year, and that was late January. I say that because I don't think we would have closed the game the right way, we would have found a way to lose the game. Now, this bunch is finding ways to win games."

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