Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s 73-68 home win over Notre Dame in front of 16,825 fans Wednesday evening at PNC Arena.

The game was tied 66-66 when NC State redshirt junior forward D.J. Funderburk received an entry past while being guarded one-on-one by Notre Dame senior and double-double machine John Mooney.

The latter had been playing with four fouls, the last of which he picked up with 5:27 left in the contest, and was doing so effectively. Mooney scored six straight points when the game was tied 60-60 to keep the Irish in the contest. On this particular possession however, Mooney made the mistake of committing his fifth foul, exiting the game with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

Funderburk broke the tie by making both free throws, putting NC State up for good with 1:38 left. Without their go-to performer late in the game, Notre Dame did not make a field goal after that point.

With 52.8 seconds left in the game, Wolfpack senior guard Markell Johnson split two defenders at the top of the key and then made a circus-type shot, going up and and then under Notre Dame senior shot blocker Juwan Durham for an impressive layup.

More importantly, it gave the Wolfpack a 70-66 lead.

Johnson took a lot of heat for his poor performance at Clemson. He bounced back in a major way Wednesday. His 27 points matched his career high set last season against Auburn and bettered by two points his previous best in an ACC game, which he did last season versus Wake Forest.

Johnson made 9 of 15 shots from the field and 4 of 9 three pointers. He also sank 5 of 6 free throws after going 9 of 26 in his previous four games combined at the line. The four threes were a new season high for him. He added seven assists with only two turnovers, all while battling back spasms that he suffered late in the first half.

Johnson needs seven more assists to reach 500 for his career. Only three other NC State players — Chris Corchiani, Sidney Lowe and Lorenzo Brown — have done that. He needs 50 more points to become the 53rd player in program history to have 1,000 career points.

Funderburk was huge for NC State Wednesday. He had 16 points and nine rebounds while battling in the paint against the nation’s best rebounder, statistically, in Mooney.

One play that in particular stood out was when Funderburk grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds off missed three-pointers on the same possession, flying through the lane to get the second one. That led to junior guard Braxton Beverly making a key three to close the Notre Dame lead to two at 60-58 with 6:19 remaining.

Funderburk’s nine rebounds matched his career-high, which he has set now on five occasions including two games ago against Appalachian State. He was also clutch at the line, making eight straight after missing his first two. That was a new personal best in made FTs in a game.

The redshirt freshman center provided a scare when he went down quickly while trying to get a rebound, at first appearing to grab his knee. It then became apparent that Bates was dealing with a cramp.

It was part of a weird night for NC State. In addition to Johnson’s back spasms, Beverly also had to leave the game for a while after appearing to hurt his ankle. NC State was also without fifth-year senior guard C.J. Bryce, the Pack’s leading scorer and rebounder. Bryce missed his third straight game with a concussion.

The good news though was that Bates was fine, as evident by his six points, five rebounds and three blocked shots in 28-plus minutes. Bates set a new NC State record for most blocks by a freshman in a season, with still at least 17 more games left provided Bates stays healthy. J.J. Hickson previously held the mark.

Reflecting on the milestone caused head coach Kevin Keatts to almost get emotional after the game. Bates has 48 blocks on the year, averaging 3.2 a contest, which leads the ACC.

Dating back to 1975-76, the highest average for rejections in a game at NC State is 2.6, set by Thurl Bailey in 1982-83 when he had a school record 95 blocks for the year.

Notre Dame entered Wednesday leading the country in fewest turnovers per game at 9.6. The Irish have been top 10 in the country in that category each of the past five seasons but have never finished the year the best in it. The closest it came was when it was second at 9.5 turnovers a contest in 2016-17.

Against the Pack however, Notre Dame turned it over 14 times. The only time the Irish had more turnovers in a game this year was when it had 15 in a one-point home loss to Boston College.

Notre Dame also led the country in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.96, but it only had 11 assists against the Pack.

NC State four-star signing and guard Cam Hayes from Greensboro (N.C.) Day School was in attendance, as were several members of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team.

There was famed halftime performer “The Red Panda.”

Also spotted was fifth-year senior center Danny Dixon, who played a season-high 7:45 off the bench and finished with three rebounds, including a couple key offensive boards. Dixon also had an assist. It is just the second time in an ACC game that Dixon played this year.

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

First half

20:00-15:42: Notre Dame 12, NC State 10

15:42-11:03: Notre Dame 10, NC State 7

11:03-7:55: NC State 6, Notre Dame 6

7:55-3:47: Notre Dame 7, NC State 5

3:47-Halftime: NC State 6, Notre Dame 4

Second half

20:00-15:03: Notre Dame 12, NC State 5

15:03-9:29: NC State 14, Notre Dame 7

9:29-7:19: Notre Dame 2, NC State 0

7:19-3:57: NC State 7, Notre Dame 2

3:57-Halftime: NC State 13, Notre Dame 6

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

Johnson: 26.4

Funderburk: 16.4

Bates: 6.8

Sophomore forward Jericole Hellems: 5.7

Beverly: 5.2

Dixon: 2.4

Redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels: -0.3

Senior forward Pat Andree: -2.56

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

• Funderburk +13 (23:01 minutes played)

• Beverly +8 (32:49)

• Hellems +8 (32:11)

• Bates +5 (28:13)

• Johnson +3 (36:17)

• Andree -6 (12:43)

• Daniels -10 (27:01)

NC State is 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC, and Notre Dame is 10-5 and 1-3. The Fighting Irish now leads the all-time series 8-7, but NC State has won three straight to even the score at 4-4 since the Irish joined the ACC.

The Pack is 9-1 at home this year. NC State is 5-2 in night games (played after 6 p.m.), 4-3 in weekday games (including 3-0 on Wednesdays) and 1-3 when trailing at halftime.

The game was broadcast on ESPN2. During the season, we’ll keep track of how NC State does on the various networks.

- ACC Network Extra: 3-0

- RSN: 2-0

- ESPN+: 1-0

- ACC Network: 3-2

- ESPN2: 2-2

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

- November: 5-2

- December: 5-1

- January: 1-1

• Notre Dame won the battle in the paint, 36-32.

• The Irish outscored the Pack 16-5 in fast break points.

• State’s bench beat Notre Dame’s reserve (there was only one sub for ND), 16-3.

• The Pack had the edge in turnover margin 14-8, but Notre Dame had, more importantly, a bigger advantage in points off them, 15-8.

• Notre Dame won the battle on the boards, 36-34 overall, while State had an 16-12 edge on the offensive glass. The Pack had a small win in second-chance points, 12-11.

• Defensively, NC State had four blocks, altered four more shots and nabbed seven steals. The Fighting Irish had four blocks, four alters and five steals.

• Notre Dame led for 31:29, NC State for 3:16 and the game was tied for the opening 5:15 seconds. The Fighting Irish’ largest lead was 12 points during while NC State’s was five.

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