Quick hits and notes from NC State’s 78-77 win over Harvard during the second round of the NIT in front of sold-out (and once again loud) crowd of 5,500 fans at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

Play(s) of the game

They both came courtesy NC State sophomore guard Braxton Beverly, with one on each side of the floor.

With the score tied 61-61, Beverly took advantage of the defender falling down to make a corner three-pointer that gave NC State the lead for good at 64-61 with seven minutes left. Yet it was never a comfortable advantage until the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Beverly also made a key defensive stand to help preserve the late lead. Harvard star junior guard Bryce Aiken was fouled by NC State redshirt sophomore guard Devon Daniels with 17.1 seconds left and the Wolfpack ahead 76-73. Aiken made the first free throw, but missed the second. However, Harvard was able to come away with the loose ball off the rebound.

Aiken, who scored 19 points and was averaging 22.4 points per game entering the evening, was isolated on Beverly. Beverly held his ground, appearing to block Aiken’s shot, although officially Aiken was ruled to have turned the ball over.

Highlight of the game

Daniels had a two-handed dunk on the end of a well-executed and pretty fast break orchestrated by the Wolfpack with 11:38 to go in the first, putting NC State up 19-12.

Player of the game

While redshirt junior wing C.J. Bryce is continuing to struggle with his three-point shot, he did not let that affect the rest of his game against Harvard. Bryce finished with a team-high 16 points, making 6 of 12 shots (6 of 9 inside the arc) and also grabbing seven rebounds while playing a game-high 33 minutes. He also calmly made a pair of free throws with 7.1 seconds remaining to give NC State a four-point lead at 79-75.

Bryce did miss all three of his three-point tries. In his last nine games, Bryce is shooting 6 of 31 from long range, or 19.4 percent. Prior to that, Bryce had been making 42.1 percent of his shots from beyond the arc, 32 of 76.

Moving on

Due to Lipscomb’s upset of the “region’s” top seed UNC Greensboro, Reynolds Coliseum will get another game. It is certain to be the last time the Pack plays in Raleigh. The winner of Wednesday night’s 9 p.m. game will advance to famed Madison Square Garden in New York for the NIT semifinals.

Wichita State, who knocked out NC State’s ACC rival Clemson Sunday, will be the opponent for whoever emerges between the Pack and Lipscomb.

Lipscomb, like NC State’s previous opponents Hofstra and Harvard, will be a formidable foe. It won the Atlantic Sun regular-season title before losing to Liberty (who upset Mississippi State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament) in the conference title game and is 27-7 on the year.

Lipscomb played a home-and-home with Belmont in non-conference play, which Belmont won by a combined six points. If Lipscomb had won those two games, it’s possible that they and not Belmont could have earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament field. Lipscomb won at TCU during the regular season as well.

Two crucial stats

Harvard shot better (52.7 percent compared to 40.0 percent), and it also out-rebounded NC State (37-33). That’s typically not a good combination if you want to win a game. NCSU was just 3-8 this year when the opposing team both had a higher percentage shooting and beat NC State on the boards. One of those wins was when the Pack stunned Clemson at the buzzer in PNC Arena.

The other two victories were a four-point home win over Mercer and a three-point road win at Pittsburgh, a pair of teams that ended the year with overall records well under .500.

So how did NC State pull out this win? While Harvard had an overall edge on the boards of 37-33, the Wolfpack won the offensive glass 17-11. That’s not surprising when one team shoots considerably better, but it also led to a significant 17-9 edge in second-chance points for NC State.

The other telling stat was turnovers. Harvard had 17 compared to just seven for the Wolfpack. NCSU also outscored the Crimson 23-9 in points off turnovers. That was NC State’s third-best turnover margin of the year and tied for its fifth-best advantage in points off turnovers.

However, this is the best margin in a game where the opponent was not considered quad four out of the four quadrants, based on the NET rankings, used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.

Spotted at the game

Sitting front row behind the NC State radio crew courtside was former NC State guard Trevor Lacey. The last time Lacey was in Reynolds was a memorable (and controversial) loss to Wofford. Lacey thought he had hit the game-winner, but upon review it was waved off.

That Wofford game also marked the return of Karl Hess, who famously was banned from NC State games for a while after ejecting Pack legends Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta from a basketball game. Hess made his presence quickly known by issuing a technical foul to the Wolfpack bench.

Scoring between official timeouts

This year we have kept track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:

First half

20:00-16:00: NC State 11, Harvard 5

16:00-11:56: Harvard 7, NC State 6

11:56-8:16: Harvard 10, NC State 9

8:16-3:08: Harvard 14, NC State 7

3:08-Halftime: NC State 5, Harvard 3

Second half

20:00-15:26: NC State 11, Harvard 8

15:26-11:46: Harvard 10, NC State 6

11:46-7:58: NC State 6, Harvard 4

7:58-2:35: NC State 9, Harvard 8

2:35-Final: NC State 8, Harvard 8

Game scores

Using Hollinger’s measure of productivity, players are graded 1-40 with 10 being average.

Bryce: 12.3

Junior guard Markell Johnson: 11.8

Daniels: 11.2

Beverly: 6.2

Fifth-year senior forward Torin Dorn: 5.5

Redshirt sophomore center DJ Funderburk: 5.2

Redshirt junior center Wyatt Walker: 3.2

Sophomore guard Blake Harris: 2.7

Freshman forward Jericole Hellems: -1.1

Fifth-year senior wing Eric Lockett: -2.2

Plus/minus

Here is the plus/minus for each player (the difference between points scored while they were on the floor) on NCSU.

• Beverly +11 (29 minutes played)

• Walker +8 (22)

• Daniels +5 (28)

• Bryce +4 (33)

• Johnson +4 (25)

• Hellems -1 (6)

• Dorn -5 (27)

• Funderburk -5 (14)

• Lockett -7 (9)

• Harris -9 (7)

What the win means

The Pack improves to 24-11, while Harvard finishes 19-12. This is the first time the two teams have met on the basketball court. NCSU ties its mark for most wins in a season since the 1983 national title squad.

The last time NC State reached the quarterfinals of the NIT was in 2007 during head coach Sydney Lowe’s first season. NCSU fell 71-66 at West Virginia in the quarters that year.

NC State is 13-8 in night games (tips after 6 p.m.) and 13-3 on weekend contests. NCSU is now 4-8 when trailing at the break (the Pack was down 39-38).

The game was broadcast on ESPNU. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks:

- ACC Network Extra: 6-0

- ESPNU: 4-0

- RSN: 5-1

- Raycom: 6-5

- ESPN2: 3-3

- ESPN: 1-3

We will also track NC State’s records by month:

- November: 6-1

- December: 6-0

- January: 4-4

- February: 4-3

- March: 4-3

Other stats of note

• Harvard had a 46-30 edge in points in the paint.

• Both teams had 10 fast-break points.

• Defensively, NC State had three blocks and five steals. The Crimson had three steals to go with eight rejections.

• NC State led for 24:17, Harvard for 6:59 and the game was tied for 8:44. The Pack’s largest lead was 12 and Havard’s was five.

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