Davidson presented a big lineup for a team from the Atlantic 10, but the Wildcats had no answers for the Wolfpack down low Thursday night.

NC State (14-10, 9-8 ACC) outscored the Cats (13-9, 7-4 A-10) 38-26 in the paint on its way to a 75-61 victory in the first round of the 2021 NIT.

“We executed the game plan probably better than we've done all year,” Wolfpack head coach Kevin Keatts said. “We wanted to play inside-out. Our post guys were tremendous. When you look at their numbers, they're off the charts.”

All three members of the Pack’s starting frontcourt finished the night in double figures.

Fifth-year senior DJ Funderburk led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including his second made three-pointer of the season and his first since the overtime road loss to Clemson on Jan. 3. He also reeled in seven rebounds and recorded one assist.

Redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates had 14 points on a perfect 7-of-7 mark from the field and a team-high eight rebounds.

Junior forward Jericole Hellems finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including a 2-of-4 mark from three, which increased his season percentage from beyond the arc to .397. Hellems also chipped in four rebounds and two steals.

“They came out and played the way you're supposed to play basketball,” Keatts said. “That was fun. If you're a Wolfpack fan and you watched that game, you got to say, 'Man, that was a fun game.' It was NC State basketball. We played on both ends of the floor, and I'm excited that we're playing hard that way at the end of the year.”

Davidson had only been held to 61 points or less six times this season, five of which resulted in a majority of its nine losses this year.

The Wildcats ranked 18th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency entering Thursday’s contest according to KenPom.

But a smothering defensive effort by the Wolfpack kept the Cats cold from the field consistently throughout the night.

Davidson shot just 44 percent from the field and 29 percent on 24 attempts from the perimeter. For comparison, the Wildcats shot 47.3 from the field and 35.7 percent from beyond the arc this season entering this game.

“They back cut you, and they're tremendous passers,” Keatts said. “We tried to turn them over. When you look at it, they had 14 assists and only 10 turnovers. They make you pay for all your mistakes.

“What we talked about is being aggressive and tracing the basketball when you're guarding the basketball. I wanted to have a lot of deflections in order to be able to beat these guys because even when you break down, and you're going to break down because they backdoor cut you, they come off stagger screens, they read what you do, but I thought our guys did a good job guarding the basketball and cleaning up some of our mistakes.

“It's as tough of a team as we played this year as far as how they cut and their ability to shoot the basketball.”

NC State’s young backcourt had a quiet, yet efficient showing offensively, but they made their presence known on the defensive end.

Freshman guard Cam Hayes, Shakeel Moore and Dereon Seabron combined for just 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting but collectively had a plus-minus of +15 on the court.

Davidson head coach Bob McKillop saw a lot of potential in the Wolfpack backcourt.

“They put you on your heels,” McKillop said. “When Dereon made that three and Cam made the two of them, they got your backpedaling, and all of a sudden they beat you from the arc. They're dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

“They're very, very good guards. Very, very good, and they play so hard, they compete. We're not an easy team to defend, and we run around a lot, we cut, we screen, we pass, we move the ball, and they were relentless in their defensive tenacity.”

Keatts echoed similar praise for his young guards but didn’t want them to “believe” McKillop’s comments yet considering they have “a lot to get better at on the defensive end” according to the Wolfpack head coach.

“This is a big part of why we're here, for them to grow up and learn,” Keatts said. “I thought we were really good. We picked a really good time to be good. I'll say this to you guys, we've won six out of seven games. A lot of people would love to just judge us by the one game that we played in the tournament against Syracuse, but we've won six out of our last seven games and we've played good basketball in that stretch.”

After NC State’s early exit from the ACC Tournament last week, it was still unclear whether or not the Wolfpack would accept a bid to the NIT following a challenging season constantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keatts gave his guys some time to process the disappointment from the conference tournament before he individually discussed the possibility of accepting an invitation to the NIT with each of his upperclassmen.

He was pleased when they shared the same perspective as he did without any prodding or pressure to do so. The players wanted to continue their season and have a chance to go out on a high note.

“It's a valuable experience for us,” Keatts said. “No matter what happened tonight or the rest of the tournament, I love my kids. They've worked hard for me. They've done more this year, and I've learned so much from these guys through the pandemic and our injuries than I've ever learned in my life of coaching. When a guy like me that's been around for a while is still learning, that's a positive thing.”

The seniors also had some extra motivation to continue playing, and the underclassmen shared a desire to send Funderburk and senior guard Braxton Beverly off on a high note.

“For the seniors, it's our last couple of games,” Funderburk said. “We wanted to stay together as long as possible, and if there was an option to keep playing together, then we definitely wanted to take it.”

“I wanted to send our seniors off on a better note,” Bates added. “It's never good to end on a loss. For us to have the opportunity to play, not everybody has the opportunity, so I felt like we needed to take it.”

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