Quick hits and notes from NC State Wolfpack basketball’s 65-62 win over Pittsburgh inside PNC Arena in Raleigh on Saturday afternoon.

A couple of fast beak baskets late in the second half proved to be enough to hold Pittsburgh at bay in a second half where the Panthers, bluntly speaking, outplayed the Wolfpack for most of it.

The first came when fifth-year senior forward DJ Funderburk took a nice pass from senior guard Braxton Beverly for a dunk to give NC State a 54-49 advantage with 8:13 to go.

The second was when junior forward Jericole Hellems made a nifty move in transition to get a layup with 5:26 remaining that gave the Pack a 58-53 lead.

It's tempting to go with Hellems, who had a double-double with team-highs 15 points and 10 rebounds. That was Hellems' second double-double of the season and his career.

But we went with Beverly, who seems to have found a comfortable role for himself off the bench. He finished with a season-high 14 points in 27 minutes, including making 8 of 9 free throws. That matched Beverly's career-high in trips to the line for a game.

Beverly has scored in double figures in three of his last four games.

Against Virginia, the storyline was the play of the three freshmen: guards Cam Hayes and Shakeel Moore and wing Dereon Seabron.

Against Pittsburgh, it was the veterans who stepped up.

The Hayes, Moore and Seabron trio went just 2-of-13 shooting from the field, including 1 of 9 on threes, and finished with a combined 11 points, although they did collectively have 11 rebounds, six assists and four steals with four turnovers (impressively none for Hayes in 38 minutes of action).

The storyline on Sunday was how the veterans stepped up. In addition to Hayes and Hellems, both Funderburk and redshirt sophomore center Manny Bates joined them in double-digits scoring.

Funderburk fouled out, but before that he had 13 points. Bates had 10 points and six blocked shots. Bates had not scored in double figures in his last five games, but he was tantalizingly close, contributing either eight or nine points each time. Funderburk meanwhile has scored in double figures in seven consecutive contests.

Bates broke out of a tie with C.J. Leslie for sixth most rejections in school history, and he needs one more to tie Todd Fuller for fifth place with 143.

There was a bit more energy in the arena on Sunday, as a few more fans were allowed into the arena to watch the game. They even brought out the cheerleaders for the first time in hoops, and band music was piped in over the loudspeakers.

It was not near a normal atmosphere, but it felt significantly closer than what it was before.

Also spotted was a rare sighting of freshmen center Ebenezer Dowuona. Due to both Funderburk and Bates getting two first half fouls, Dowuona played the final six minutes of the first half. For some perspective, Dowuona has only played in three games during ACC play, all lopsided affairs.

He played three minutes at Florida State, seven at Boston College and two at Wake Forest. It was the first time he stepped on the floor at PNC Arena in his career. All his prior action in non-conference play came at Reynolds Coliseum or in Connecticut.

Dowuona finished with two points, two rebounds and a blocked shot with two fouls.

By improving to 8-8 in the ACC, the Wolfpack is now tied with 7-7 Syracuse in the league standings for the ninth seed, but since the Orange swept NC State earlier in the regular season it owns the tiebreaker.

Thus if the ACC Tournament were held today, the Pack, as a 10 seed, would play 15th seeded Miami in the opening round.

The worst NC State could do for the tournament is be the 11th seed, which would require the Pack to lose both Wednesday at Notre Dame and Saturday at home to Virginia Tech and at the same time Notre Dame also prevailing in its regular season finale on Saturday against Florida State.

The best the Pack can do is play in the 8 vs. 9 game as the eight seed. That would require NC State winning out and Duke losing Tuesday at Georgia Tech and next Saturday at UNC, and meanwhile Syracuse losing one of its home games with UNC on Monday evening and Clemson on Wednesday.

Should NC State win out and Syracuse loses once, the Pack is locked into that 8 vs. 9 affair.

If the Wolfpack loses either of its remaining games, it would be eliminated from the 8-9 game and be either a 10 or 11 seed depending on Notre Dame's results. Teams seeded 10th or lower must play on day one (Tuesday) of the ACC Tournament. Those that are in 5-through-9 group get a bye into the second round on Wednesday.

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

First half

20:00-15:55: NC State 7, Pittsburgh 4

15:55-11:11: Pittsburgh 7, NC State 5

11:11-7:08: NC State 10, Pittsburgh 2

7:08-3:25: NC State 4, Pittsburgh 3

3:25-Halftime: NC State 5, Pittsburgh 5

Second half

20:00-14:55: NC State 10, Pittsburgh 10

14:55-11:31: Pittsburgh 10, NC State 6

11:31-7:37: Pittsburgh 8, NC State 7

7:37-2:50: NC State 6, Pittsburgh 6

2:50-Final: Pittsburgh 7, NC State 5

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

• Hellems: +5 (37 minutes played)

• Beverly: +5 (27)

• Dowuona: +2 (6)

• Hayes: +1 (38)

• Funderburk: +1 (23)

• Bates: 0 (32)

• Moore: -4 (18)

• Seabron: -6 (13)

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

Hellems — 14.2

Beverly — 9.4

Bates — 8.6

Funderburk — 6.8

Hayes — 4.9

Moore — 2.3

Dowuona — 2.2

Seabron — 1.0

NC State improves to 12-9 overall and 8-8 in the ACC while Pittsburgh is 9-10 and 5-9. The Wolfpack is now 7-4 at home and 7-3 in day games (tipoff before 6 p.m.). NC State is 4-4 in weekend contests (1-1 on Sundays).

The Wolfpack continues its domination of Pittsburgh, leading the overall series 21-2 and extending its win streak over the Panthers to 12 in a row. It is 12-1 against them since Pittsburgh joined the ACC and 5-1 at PNC Arena in that span. It should be noted that the last seven wins in the regular season for NC State over Pitt have all been by six or fewer points.

The Pack has won four straight, marking the first time its done that in ACC games since the 2017-18 season. NCSU also assured itself of not having a losing overall record in 2020-21.

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

• ESPNU: 1-0

• ACC Network: 9-5

• ESPN: 1-1

• RSN: 2-2

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

• November: 2-0

• December: 4-1

• January: 1-5

• February: 5-3

• Pittsburgh won the points in the paint, 28-26, only the second time in the last 10 games NC State has lost the category.

• The Panthers had a 15-12 edge in fast break points.

• NC State's bench outscored Pitt's reserves, 18-17.

• The Pack won the turnover margin 14-9, and converted that to a big 23-10 edge in points off them.

• The Panthers won on the boards, 45-31 overall and 20-7 on the offensive glass. Pitt turned that into a 14-6 advantage in second-chance points.

• Defensively, NC State had seven blocks and five steals. Pittsburgh had four blocks and added five steals.

• NC State's largest advantage was 14 points and it led for 37:08. Pitt's only leads were 2-0 and 4-2, and it was up for just 30 seconds.

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