The pressure was intense for NC State to get a win over last-place ACC member North Carolina, and not just because of the rivalry.

NC State entered Tuesday’s game fighting for its NCAA Tournament life, plus wanted to avenge a previous home loss to the Tar Heels on Jan. 27. UNC hadn’t won a game since that win in Raleigh.

UNC junior post player Garrison Brooks owned the paint for a second time against NC State, leading the Tar Heels to a 85-79 lead in front of 21,338 fans at the Dean E. Smith Center. The loss doesn’t cripple NC State’s postseason hopes, but it won’t help. The Wolfpack fell to 17-11 overall and 8-9 in the ACC with a home game against Pittsburgh looming Saturday.

“We came out and we played well, but we just didn’t come out with the win,” said NCSU senior point guard Markell Johnson, who had 21 points and 10 assists. “We did everything we wanted to do on the offensive end.”

The frustration will have to last until next year that NC State couldn’t defeat UNC, unless by some odd chance the two teams find a way to play each other in the ACC Tournament. The Tar Heels improved to 11-17 overall and 4-13 in the league. Despite those frustrations, NCSU coach Kevin Keatts saw the positives in the loss, though he wasn’t pleased at the offensive rebounding difference (13-to-7).

“I told my guys after the game that we played extremely hard,” Keatts said. “Give Carolina credit. I thought they finished the game much better than we did.

“I thought we did a lot of good things, but I don’t think we played particularly smart and turned the ball over at key spots in the game that I didn’t like [14 turnovers].”

Brooks finished with 30 points and nine rebounds, and surprisingly made 14 of 16 from the free-throw line. Brooks finished with 55 points between the two meetings against NC State.

“This is still North Carolina,” Keatts said. “They still have McDonald’s All-American’s. They are still a great program. They aren’t dead.”

NC State took a 52-45 lead with 14:45 left in the game following NCSU redshirt junior power forward D.J. Funderburk’s layup.

Brooks worked his magic inside and freshman point guard Cole Anthony and senior wing Christian Keeling playing well on the perimeter helped the Tar Heels to make its move. UNC made an 18-point turnaround to take a 67-56 lead with 8:33 left. That followed a 14-point first-half turnaround.

NC State went into the game hoping to be tougher on the boards, but the foul trouble made that more difficult, though Funderburk had 18 points and nine rebounds.

What kept UNC from pulling away was its own porous three-point shooing. The Tar Heels went 3 of 16 from beyond the arc for the game.

NC State had hoped to have senior wing Christian Keeling playing with fifth-year senior wing C.J. Bryce this season, but he ultimately picked UNC over Clemson.

The Charleston Southern graduate transfer had a season-high 16 points and went 2 of 4 on three-pointers to spark the Tar Heels off the bench. Keeling averaged 18.7 points per game last year in the Big South, but has been slow to adjust to North Carolina, averaging 6.0 points in 18.5 minutes per contest.

“Good player and he was a really good scorer in the Big South,” Keatts said. “I knew he was capable of making shots. he gave them a tremendous lift.”

Bryce, who transferred to NC State from North Carolina-Wilmington, had a goose egg when the Wolfpack hosted the Tar Heels in Raleigh on Jan. 27. Bryce was in the midst of a two-game streak where he didn’t score between playing UNC and at Georgia Tech on Jan. 25. He was 0 of 12 during that stretch.

Bryce cracked the scorebook the last two games against Duke, Florida State and Boston College — NCSU went 1-2 in that stretch — but he combined to of just 11 of 37 from the field and 1 of 11 on three-pointers.

Bryce made sure to not repeat those struggles in the rematch. He made his first basket with 12:37 left in the first half to give NC State a 17-11 lead. Bryce finished with 13 points and five rebounds, but was frustrated with the outcome.

“We aren’t looking at it long term,” Bryce said. “We still want to take it one game at a time. We have a big one coming up with Pitt at home.”

Four different played picked up two fouls in the first half for NC State, with redshirt junior wing Devon Daniels only played six minutes and redshirt freshman center Manny Bates played four. Senior forward Pat Andree and sophomore forward Jericole Hellems also had two fouls apiece. UNC was able to use the foul discrepancy to go 7 of 12 at the free-throw line.

Keatts would have preferred Andree to have missed his fourth straight game with an ankle injury, but the foul trouble caused him to play.

“For the second or third time in a row, I had key players on the bench with fouls in the first half,” Keatts said. “It kind of changes us because we don’t have a lot of depth. We’ve got to do a better job of not fouling.”

NC State relied on shooting three-pointers for nearly half of its first-half field-goal attempts, but only went 4 of 15 from beyond the arc. The Wolfpack wanted more emphasis driving the ball to the rim in the second half, and only tried 10 three-pointers after the break.

“We decided to drive and when we drove, we got in there,” Keatts said. “I think our guys got a little discouraged because we drove in the first half and we got bumped a couple of times and they felt like we didn’t get the calls.”

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