NC State avoided any unnecessary drama Friday with a dominant 84-64 victory over visiting Wake Forest on Senior Day.

Six NC State players reached double figures, with redshirt junior center D.J. Funderburk leading the way with 19 points, plus boards. NCSU shot an impressive 56.7 percent from the field. Junior guard Braxton Beverly hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 27-17 with 9:45 left in the first half, and WFU never got it to within single figures.

“I just want to shout out my teammates for sticking it out in the ups and downs,” NCSU senior point guard Markell Johnson said. “They made a run to try and get back in the game, but we just pulled away.”

NCSU seniors Johnson, C.J. Bryce, Danny Dixon and Pat Andree all played for the last time at PNC Arena. Three of the four cracked double figures against Wake Forest, with Johnson finishing with 13 points and 10 assists.

“Markell Johnson, obviously, everybody knows he’s had his ups and downs, but what I will say about him is that he didn’t take bad advice,” NCSU head coach Kevin Keatts said. “A lot of young men, especially guys we’ve had in the program in the past, have decided to jump to the NBA when they weren’t ready. Markell is a guy who took the positive and negative feedback and decided to come back to NC State.”

Keatts and the Wolfpack will play Wednesday at the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. They’ll know by the end of Saturday, who they will play.

Keatts knows the goal is simple next week, the more they win, the better the resume will look. He believes the Wolfpack pass the eye ball test.

“We’ve answered some of the questions or concerns the committee had last year,” Keatts said. “Some people would argue it was our strength of schedule [being last in the country] for the non-conference. I get it, it was bad. Right now, we finished in the top 100 non-conference.

“Some people would argue [last year] that we didn’t have enough quality quad one wins. We are right now sitting there with four quad one wins.”

Beverly has battled a nagging back injury for half the season. He’s always been a streaky shooter, but the Wolfpack are hopeful that his bust-out 4 of 5 effort from three-point land will be a boost for the ACC Tournament next week.

Beverly went 6 of 7 overall and had 16 points — all in the first half — in 23:42 of action in busting the game wide-open.

“It was really good to see the ball go in the hole for Braxton Beverly,” Keatts said. “We needed it and he needed it. I think our team understands what kind of player he can be.”

“He is a weapon for us. He is a guy that can score. We need him to make those type of shots.”

Beverly hadn’t shot that well in recent weeks, dating back to going 4 of 7 on three-pointers in the win at Miami on Feb. 5. He had shot 9 of 33 from the field for 27.3 percent over the last seven games.

Beverly’s back issue dates back to sitting out most of The Citadel game Dec. 22. Games like the Miami contest and Friday against Wake Forest have been few and far between since then. He entered Friday’s game averaging 6.7 points per game and shooting 36.6 percent from the field and 35.8 percent on three-pointers, all statistics that are hovering around his career marks. However, the back injury has limited his minutes at times this season and he lost his starting spot.

“It’s probably more mental,” said Beverly on what has been the toughest challenge. “The pain, it hurts, but I can endure it. Any little thing can throw it off and cause a bigger problem.”

Keatts pondered the idea of resting Beverly more or holding him out of practices or games, but he knows how hard it is to take him off the court.

“He is just beat up,” Keatts said. “If somebody gave me the power to tell Braxton Beverly to not play basketball for three weeks, I would do it. I know Braxton Beverly. As soon as I get away from him, he is going to sneak somewhere and play basketball just because he loves the game.”

Dixon entered Friday with 14 points on the season, and he almost equaled it against the Demon Deacons.

The 6-10, 230-pounder went 5 of 6 from the field for 10 big points in easily his most productive stint of the season. His previous season-high was four points in the season opener against Georgia Tech.

“It feels good, last game here and just a good time,” Dixon said. “It was a fun way to go out.”

Dixon, who started his career at George Mason and then he graduated last year at Missouri-Kansas City, got a boost in playing time due to redshirt freshman center Manny Bates injuring his knee and being held out. Dixon started for Senior Day and quickly proved he was going to be a factor.

“Danny Dixon definitely did his thing today,” Johnson said. “Nobody could stop him in the post today.”

Dixon scored in double figures 10 times last year at UMKC, with the last time, having 16 points against Utah Valley on Feb. 23, 2019.

“He didn’t accidentally get here as a fifth year,” Keatts said. “He has played a lot of basketball. In some respects, he’s a better player at our level than opposed to a low Division I because they usually have 6-6 post guys.”

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