Quick hits and notes from NC State Wolfpack basketball’s 65-61 loss to Colorado State in the second round of the NIT in Frisco, Texas on Thursday evening.

Ultimately, it came down to a couple of shots.

With about 1:20 left, Colorado State's burly 6-foot-5 sophomore forward David Roddy, faced with an expiring shot clock and threw up a fading jumper from about the free throw line that swished over the front of the rim, putting the Rams up 63-59.

NC State was able to respond with a dunk from fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk with 1:02 left, and then recorded a stop on the other end.

A timeout with 22.6 seconds left resulted in junior forward Jericole Hellems getting an open look from three for the lead, but his shot was off the mark. Colorado State, an excellent free throw shooting team, iced the game with a pair at the charity stripe with 6.2 seconds remaining for the final margin.

On one end, redshirt junior center Manny Bates had a highlight-worthy shot block, and then on the other end he topped it off with a dunk, giving the Wolfpack an 11-5 lead just over four minutes into the game.

When Colorado State made its move, it was behind the play of sophomore guard Isaiah Stevens, a native Texan playing in front of family.

NC State trailed only once, when it was 12-11 with 12:21 left in the first half, until Stevens' three put the Rams up 38-35 with 15:18 to go in the game. It started a stretch where he scored 12 of Colorado State's 16 points, the last of which was a three that put CSU up 51-47.

He finished with a game-high 18 points to go with a team-best four assists and only two turnovers in 36 minutes.

About an hour before the game, NC State announced that senior guard Braxton Beverly and freshman center Ebenezer Dowuona were both going to miss the contest due to injuries. There was no specification after the game on what they were.

Beverly was obviously the more noticeable absence. During the last seven games, in which NC State went 6-1, Beverly averaged 9.1 points a contest while shooting 41.4 percent on three-pointers (12 of 29) and connecting on 15 of 16 free throws. He also had 17 assists with just seven turnovers.

Combining Beverly's absence with the earlier season-ending injuries to fifth-year senior Devon Daniels and redshirt junior Thomas Allen, NC State was left with exclusively freshman guards, and the youth showed.

Redshirt freshman Dereon Seabron and freshmen Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore combined to go 10 of 28 from the field, including 1 of 11 on threes, for 17 points. They had seven assists and 12 turnovers. Hayes missed a technical foul free throw and also misfired on the front-end of a late one-and-one.

If being short-handed was not already a problem, three first half fouls to both Funderburk and Moore forced head coach Kevin Keatts to go further into the bench than he normally would.

Freshman forward Jaylon Gibson logged a pair of first half minutes, and sophomore walk-on forward Max Farthing played six minutes total. Farthing had played 11 minutes all season and attempted only one shot, but against Colorado State he calmly nailed a corner three-pointer in the first half.

It is just the second career basket made by the Raleigh native.

Colorado State made just 3 of 23 three-pointers in the game. Only twice did a team make fewer threes in a game on the Pack this year: Campbell on Dec. 19 and UNC three days later, both NC State wins. Only Campbell's 11.8 percent accuracy beyond the arc (2 of 17) was worse than what Colorado State did (13.0 percent).

So how did CSU emerge victorious? It made 23 of 36 shots from inside the arc, or 63.9 percent.

In the second half, they collectively shot 16 of 22 on non-three-pointers, or 72.7 percent. For a better, simpler way of looking at it, Colorado State made almost three out of every four shots they attempted from two-point territory after halftime.

For good measure, Colorado State made 10 of 11 free throws, too.

Here we keep track of the scoring between each official timeout to help give an idea of the game flow:

First half

20:00-15:56: NC State 7, Colorado State 0

15:56-11:26: Colorado State 9, NC State 4

11:26-7:53: NC State 5, Colorado State 3

7:53-2:42: NC State 10, Colorado State 9

2:42-Halftime: Colorado State 4, NC State 2

Second half

20:00-14:45: Colorado State 13, NC State 7

14:45-10:53: NC State 6, Colorado State 6

10:53-7:56: NC State 4, Colorado State 4

7:56-4:22: Colorado State 9, NC State 8

4:22-Final: NC State 8, Colorado State 8

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

• Funderburk: +3 (33 minutes played)

• Bates: +2 (38)

• Hellems: -2 (39)

• Farthing: -3 (6)

• Seabron: -4 (29)

• Moore: -4 (25)

• Gibson - 4 (2)

• Hayes: -8 (29)

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

Funderburk — 12.9

Bates — 12.5

Hellems — 10.1

Farthing — 2.3

Seabron — 0.5

Gibson — -0.4

Moore — -1.7

Hayes — -3.1

NC State finishes the season at 14-11 and Colorado State improves to 20-6. The Wolfpack went 7-7 away from home, including 2-2 in neutral games, and 7-7 in night games (tipoff after 6 p.m.). NC State was 10-7 in weekday contests.

This was the first time the two teams ever met, and NC State falls to 11-5 all-time against opponents currently in the Mountain West Conference.

NC State is 19-14 in NIT games.

This game was televised on ESPN. Throughout the year, we kept track of the Pack's record on the different channels:

• ESPNU: 1-0

• ACC Network: 10-6

• ESPN: 2-2

• RSN: 2-2

We also tracked NC State’s records by month:

• November: 2-0

• December: 4-1

• January: 1-5

• February: 5-3

• March: 2-2

• Colorado State won the points in the paint, 40-34.

• The Rams had a 10-9 edge in fast break points.

• The Wolfpack's thin' bench still outscored Colorado State's reserves, 11-9.

• Colorado State won the turnover margin 17-10, and converted that to a 15-10 edge in points off them.

• The Pack won on the boards, 36-31 overall and 9-6 edge on the offensive glass. Both teams had eight second-chance points.

• Defensively, NC State had two blocks and three steals. Colorado State had four blocks and added 11 steals.

• NC State's largest advantage was seven points and it led for 22:38. Colorado State's largest lead was five points and it had the edge for 15:07

——

• Talk about it inside The State of Basketball

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolfpacker

• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolfpacker

• Like us on Facebook