NC State defeated Wake Forest 72-67 Wednesday night in PNC Arena to end a four-game losing streak.

The Wolfpack (7-5, 3-4 ACC) led the Demon Deacons (4-7, 1-7 ACC) for over 33 minutes and was up by as much as 18 points with 11:02 left in the game.

A seemingly good night for a Pack team desperate to claim its first win in 2021 turned sour though when fifth-year senior guard Devon Daniels fell to the ground with an apparent left leg injury at the 9:03 mark of the second half.

Daniels, who is the Pack’s leading scorer this season, remained on the floor for several minutes before eventually being helped off the court straight to the locker room by two trainers without applying pressure to his left leg. He was seen moments later on crutches in the tunnel but never returned to the game, or even the bench.

“We're going to pray for Devon and make sure everything's okay,” NC State head coach Kevin Keatts said after the game. “I don't have an update for you guys. Hopefully I'll get something in the next 24 to 48 hours. We're going to enjoy as much as we can, our win. We're going to try to build on it.

“Our guys in the locker room are extremely happy. It's been a long couple of weeks for us when you think about what we've had to go through as far as COVID, then not having Manny Bates, Braxton Beverly not being able to practice, it's taken a toll on us.”

If not for Daniels’ performance leading up to his injury Wednesday, it’s unlikely the Pack would have built the double-digit lead it enjoyed for most of the second half.

Daniels led the Wolfpack with 20 points and nine rebounds, three of which were on the offensive glass.

The veteran member of the backcourt also had two assists but struggled to take care of the basketball, producing a team-high five turnovers in 29 minutes on the floor.

Following Daniels’ injury, Keatts was among the first to go out on the court to comfort the guard that has been in his program for all four of his seasons thus far in Raleigh.

“When you're an athlete and a really good player, and you go to the ground, your natural thing is to freak out,” Keatts said. “These guys are not used to injuries, so I just wanted to make sure that he relaxed and knew that we were here for him. I just told him to take a couple of deep breaths, relax and let's let the trainer and the doctor look at it.”

When Daniels left the game midway through the second half, NC State led 53-39. In a just-under six-minute stretch following his departure, the Demon Deacons rattled off a 13-5 run, shrinking a 14-point Wolfpack lead down to a two-possession contest.

The Wolfpack was able to push its lead back to 10 with just over two minutes to play, but Wake Forest guard Daivien Williamson’s 13 points, including three three-pointers, in the last 2:03 made the final score appear closer than the game really was down the stretch.

“I don't know if they made the run because Devon went out of the game or if they would have made a run regardless,” Keatts said. “When you look at Wake Forest, in every tape that we watched, Virginia, Louisville, Pittsburgh, which they won, they made a run in the second half. All of those games went down the stretch, same thing when they played Virginia Tech.

“I would probably say, yes [the injury impacted NC State]. One of your better players goes out and you've got to sub some younger guys in. I was proud of Cam [Hayes] and Shakeel [Moore]. I wanted them to finish this game because I wanted them to get that experience of closing the game. We did a great job down the stretch.”

Hayes and Moore each played the final 3:30 beginning when the Pack’s lead had shrunk to six.

Moore, who only played four minutes in the loss to North Carolina Saturday, scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting, including a 2 of 3 mark from the perimeter in 18 minutes. He also added three steals, two assists and two blocks.

Hayes finished with five points, all of which from the free-throw line, a team-high four assists, two rebounds and one steal.

As for Daniels’ status moving forward, no official update was provided, but more information is expected to come out by the end of the week.

“I haven't been able to get to our training and our doctors yet to figure out what the next step is,” Keatts said. “If I'm guessing, knowing how we quickly do things in a situation like that, I'm guessing that there will be some type of MRI, probably [Thursday]. That's just a guess. I'm sure they want to make sure there's no swelling.”

*Daniels' status was updated Thursday evening. After an MRI, it was discovered that he suffered an ACL tear and will miss the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

Despite the misfortune of losing the team’s leading scorer, Keatts and the NC State players that were made available following the game were upbeat and positive after the win.

When analyzing the box score, it’s easy to understand why.

The Wolfpack was able to get back to its identity Wednesday night: forcing turnovers on defense and scoring points off of those takeaways.

The Pack forced 20 Wake Forest turnovers and scored 24 points off of those mistakes, which represented 33 percent of its final points in the victory.

“One-third, one-third, one-third,” Keatts said with a smile. “It feels good to be able to get out and play defensively like we like to play. You guys have watched us, we're not pressing as much because we just haven't had the bodies and we haven't had a chance to press in practice to get better. We haven't been in great shape because of what we've been through. For the first time in practice, we were able to get after each other for the last couple days, and we got better in that area.

“I'm proud of the fact that we were able to take those turnovers and transfer them to points. That's how we play. We like to score in transition, we like to create off of our defense. I don't have my deflection numbers, but we try to go into every game trying to get 40 deflections. I'm sure we were way over 40 tonight.”

The first thing there is to know about Keatts is that he likes to apply full-court pressure on defense. In the month of January, however, the Pack has noticeably not used a full-court press compared to its typical frequency since Keatts arrived in Raleigh four years ago.

The head coach explained that the team’s two extended pauses due to COVID, a two-week gameless stretch in mid-December and a 10-day hiatus that began Jan. 13 following a 32-point road loss to Florida State, had impacted his players’ conditioning enough to the point that he hesitated to use the press in games. He also cited a lack of practice time with his full roster as another reason the team had pulled back on its full-court pressure this month.

But the Wolfpack pressed for a majority of the game, which started with two forced turnovers in the backcourt in its first two defensive possessions.

Despite the advances on defense and in transition, the Pack also regressed to forfeiting 17 turnovers of its own. Wake Forest was only able to produce 17 points off of those opportunities, but NC State likely could have put the game out of reach earlier had it not been for its mistakes handling the ball.

“When we play the way we play, we're going to have some turnovers,” Keatts said. “I do not like [17] turnovers, but we play fast. I'm allowing these guys to be able to play fast and get after it as much as we can. We'll clean it up, we've been working on it. It's not been just one guy, it's been a lot of guys.

“We're going to get better in that area. We were doing it obviously before we went down with COVID, and we'll continue to get better.”

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