Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s 79-76 home win over Boston College on Wednesday evening at PNC Arena.

There were a few options, but ultimately we went with one who stepped up with key baskets, and that was junior forward Jericole Hellems.

He finished the contest making 5 of 8 shots from the field, including his one three-point attempt, and 9 of 11 free throws on his way to 20 points while adding six rebounds, all on the defensive glass.

Hellems played 35 minutes and all over the court. The knee injury to redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates and second half foul trouble for fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk led to Hellems playing extensive minutes as the small-ball center for NC State.

With the game on the line, Hellems scored eight straight points for the Wolfpack. He hit a three to put NC State up by one, knocked down a couple of free throws to tie it and then converted a three-point play to give NC State a lead one more time.

It did not seem serious at the time, and head coach Kevin Keatts said after the game that he was "not overly concerned," but the Wolfpack will still have to sweat out a MRI on Bates' left knee.

Bates would play just seven minutes before getting hurt. He was slow to get up in the corner of the court as Boston College senior guard Rich Kelly made a second-straight three-pointer on the other end of the floor to make the score 15-10 with 12:53 left in the first half.

Bates went to the tunnel to get it examined and then tried to walk it off behind the makeshift bench area in the end zone. After halftime, he was the last player to return to the court and wearing a wrap on his knee, but Bates made one attempt to go through the layup line and was in obvious discomfort.

Bates went straight to the tunnel after that and unsurprisingly was shortly ruled out for the remainder of the game.

We have sent out a request to Pack resident historian Tim Peeler to see if NC State has ever won back-to-back games by identical 79-76 scores, which the Pack won both of its ACC games by. There was another similarity to the contests besides the final scoreboard.

Like the UNC win, NC State jumped out to a sizable first half lead on Wednesday evening. Against the Tar Heels, NC State was up double-digits most of the first half and led by as much as 17 points before UNC scored the last nine points before the intermission to slide the advantage down to seven at 49-42.

Against Boston College, NC State quickly sprinted to an early 12-2 lead and led by double-digits most of the half, with its largest advantage coming at 15 points when it went up 45-30 with 1:07 left. BC then scored the last five points before halftime to make it more manageable, from the Eagles' perspective,

The second halves were different.

UNC threatened repeatedly in the second half but never actually tied or took the lead. Boston College on the other hand came all the way back. A three-pointer from redshirt sophomore guard Wynston Tabbs gave the Eagles' its first lead of the game at 68-66 with 5:35 left.

Tabbs' final three gave BC a 76-75 edge with 1:32 left, setting up Moore's last-minute heroics.

NC State's first game at its regular home venue saw Moore played one of his best games in a Wolfpack uniform at that point. He scored eight points, grabbed five rebounds, had two steals and dished out two assists against Campbell on Dec. 19. The only negative was three turnovers while he played what was then a season-high 18 minutes.

That was a prelude of what was to come when Moore was the breakout performer vs. UNC on Dec. 12. He made 6 of 11 shots in that game, including 3 of 4 three-pointers, for 17 points.

Against Boston College, Moore played a career-high 26 minutes and was 5 of 8 from the field, including 1 of 2 on threes, for 12 points and matched his career-high with four steals. Although he still has to cut down on the turnovers (he had a team-high four), he showed some clutch abilities by making the game-winner.

On a side note, Moore already has 16 steals in seven games, or an average of 2.3 per game. The record for most steals by a freshman at NC State is Dennis Smith Jr.'s 62 in 2016-17. That average for Moore would be the highest since Chris Corchiani averaged 2.9 a contest 30 seasons ago.

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

First half

20:00-15:24: NC State 12, Boston College 2

15:24-11:25: Boston College 11, NC State 6

11:25-7:42: NC State 12, Boston College 5

7:42-4:25: NC State 7, Boston College 7

4:25-Halftime: Boston College 10, NC State 8

Second half

20:00-15:25: Boston College 7, NC State 4

15:25-11:16: Boston College 10, NC State 8

11:16-7:59: Boston College 6, NC State 5

7:59-3:48: Boston College 15, NC State 11

3:48-Final: NC State 6, Boston College 3

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

• Hellems +10 (35 minutes played)

• Daniels +9 (38)

• Senior guard Braxton Beverly +9 (12)

• Redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates +6 (7; Note stats officially showed Bates at -6 but we believe that was a mistake)

• Funderburk +4 (30)

• Redshirt junior guard Thomas Allen +3 (32)

• Freshman guard Cam Hayes +3 (10)

• Freshman forward Jaylon Gibson -1 (1)

• Moore -4 (26)

• Redshirt freshman wing Dereon Seabron -8 (9)

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

Funderburk —16.9

Hellems — 15.3

Allen — 10.7

Moore — 8.5

Daniels — 7.0

Bates — 3.7

Seabron — 2.6

Hayes — -0.7

Gibson — -1.0

Beverly — -5.5

NC State is 2-0 in the ACC for the first time since the 2014-15 season. It is only the fifth time since the national title team of 1974 that the Wolfpack started its ACC slate with back-to-back home wins.

The Pack leads the all-time series on BC 14-12, including 9-3 in games played at PNC after winning its ninth straight vs. the Eagles in Raleigh.

This game was televised on ACC Network. Throughout the year we will keep track of the Pack's record on the different channels.

- ACC Network: 4-0

• ESPNU: 1-0

- RSN: 1-1

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

- November: 2-0

• December: 4-1

• NC State won the battle in the paint, 46-26.

• The Eagles had a large edge in fast break points, 12-7.

• The Pack’s bench beat BC’s reserves, 35-17.

• Boston College won the turnover margin, 17-16, but NC State had the advantage in points off turnovers, 18-15.

• BC won on the boards, 32-31 in overall rebounds, including an 13-11 edge on the offensive glass. The Eagles had a 16-12 advantage in second chance points.

• Defensively, NC State had one block and 10 steals. BC had one block and added six steals.

• NC State’s largest lead was 15 points and it led for 36:29. BC''s largest advantage was just two points and it led for 3:02.

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