Quick hits and notes from NC State basketball’s 84-64 win over Wake Forest Friday evening in front of 15,824 pleased fans Friday evening at PNC Arena in Raleigh.

With 14:19 left in the first half, NC State senior guard Markell Johnson somewhat casually dribbled to his right and handed the basketball off to junior guard Braxton Beverly. Without much hesitation, Beverly rose up and shot over the Wake Forest zone defense.

The three-pointer tied the game at 13-13 and started what was a 10-0 run that put the Wolfpack up for good.

When Beverly makes his shots, NC State is a far more dangerous offense. It just hasn’t happened much for Beverly and the Pack this year.

Beverly though was on fire in the first half, making all six of his shot attempts, including four three-pointers. He was held scoreless in the second half, but his 16 points at the break set the pace for the rout.

Beverly’s four threes were tied for the second most in game this season, and it is the first time he made more than two in a contest since Feb. 5 in a win at Miami.

He also played good defense, grabbing three steals. That matched his career high from last season against Pittsburgh.

For almost all.

Johnson had a double-double of 13 points and 10 assists to go with four steals. That is Johnson’s 11th double-double of the year, and in the process he passed Lorenzo Brown into third place all-time in assists in program history.

Johnson needs four more assists to reach 600 for his career.

Perhaps more notable was grad transfer center Danny Dixon. The big man had not made more than one shot in a game all season, but on this evening he was 5 of 6 from the field and had 10 points, nearly doubling his season total of 14 points entering the game.

Fifth-year senior guard C.J. Bryce was limited in the first half with two fouls but shot 4 for 10 for the game and had 11 points, six rebounds and three assists.

The lone not-so-bright spot was senior forward Pat Andree continuing his shooting struggles. Andree was able to play 13:24 after being severely limited in recent weeks by ankle injuries, but he went 0 for 3 on three-pointers.

Andree arrived at NC State with a reputation for being a lights-out three-point shooter, having made 189 in three seasons at Lehigh and shooting over 40 percent. This year however he is just 29 of 88, or 32.9 percent.

Once NC State extended the lead to 27-17, the contest never reached single digits again. Only once did the Demon Deacons bring in back to 10 points, when the score was 62-52 with 7:28 left.

NC State shot a season-best 56.7 percent from the field. In fact, there was not a single stat of note in which NC State did not perform better in than Wake Forest outside of offensive rebounding and second-chance points.

Both teams scored seven second-chance points, and the Deacs had a slight 6-5 edge on the offensive glass. That’s partially because NC State shot so much better than WFU (47.4 percent).

Per soon-to-be-former News and Observer writer Joe Giglio, NC State with this win and Georgia Tech’s victory at Clemson will either be a five or six seed. All eyes turn to Syracuse’s game at Miami Saturday afternoon.

If Miami wins, NC State is the five seed and will play the winner of Tuesday’s game between the 12 and 13 seeds. If Syracuse wins, NCSU is the six seed and tip off late Wednesday night against the winner of the Tuesday showdown between the 11 and 14 seeds.

The Tuesday games will be decided by the results of Saturday’s games, but Wake Forest, UNC and Pittsburgh are all locked in.

Wolfpack signee Cam Hayes, a four-star guard from Greensboro (N.C.) Day and recently offered class of 2022 guard M.J. Rice from Durham (N.C.) Academy were both at the game. It is the second contest in a row that Rice attended.

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

First half

20:00-14:39: Wake Forest 13, NC State 10

14:39-9:32: NC State 17, Wake Forest 4

9:32-7:52: NC State 5, Wake Forest 0

7:52-3:41: Wake Forest 9, NC State 8

3:41-Halftime: Wake Forest 5, NC State 4

Second half

20:00-15:53: NC State 8, Wake Forest 6

15:53-11:52: NC State 6, Wake Forest 4

11:52-7:28: Wake Forest 11, NC State 4

7:28-3:40: NC State 11, Wake Forest 5

3:40-Final: NC State 11, Wake Forest 7

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

Redshirt junior forward D.J. Funderburk: 19.0

Beverly: 17.5

Johnson: 16.4

Dixon: 8.8

Bryce: 8.1

Redshirt junior guard Devon Daniels: 6.9

Freshman guard Chase Graham: 5.0

Freshman forward Max Farthing: 0.3

Andree: -1.0

Sophomore forward Jericole Hellems: -3.0

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

• Daniels +20 (33:54)

• Funderburk +20 (28:35)

• Beverly +18 (23:42)

• Hellems +17 (22:03)

• Johnson +12 (35:26)

• Graham +5 (1:23)

• Farthing +5 (1:23)

• Andree +2 (19:14)

• Bryce +1 (22:55)

• Dixon – (11:25)

NC State is 19-12 overall and finishes 10-10 in the ACC, and Wake Forest is 13-17 and 6-14. NC State sweeps the season series with the Deacons and is 146-106 all-time against Wake, including 16-5 in PNC Arena.

The Pack is 14-4 at home this year. NC State is 11-6 in night games (played after 6 p.m.), 10-6 in weekday games (that includes 6-0 on Wednesdays) and 16-3 when leading at halftime.

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

- ACC Network Extra: 3-0

- ESPN+: 1-0

- RSN: 4-2

- ACC Network: 6-4

- ESPN2: 3-2

- ESPN: 2-4

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

- November: 5-2

- December: 5-1

- January: 4-4

- February: 4-4

- March: 1-1

• NC State won the battle in the paint, 46-26, doubling its best margin in an ACC game this season.

• The Wolfpack had a big edge in fast break points, 18-8, which was one off its season-best margin and the biggest spread in an ACC game in the Pack’s favor.

• NC State’s bench destroyed Wake’s reserves, 40-5. That was easily the biggest discrepancy in NCSU’s advantage this season.

• NC State won the turnover margin 11-6, and it had an advantage in points off turnovers, 22-10. The points off turnovers differential matched NC State’s season best and was a new high for an ACC game.

• The Wolfpack won the battle on the boards overall, 31-27 overall.

• Defensively, NC State had three blocks (all by Funderburk), altered one shot and nabbed 11 steals (one off a season-high). Wake Forest had one block, three alters and added six steals.

• NC State’s largest lead was 20 points and Wake Forest’s was four. NC State led for 33:43 and Wake Forest for 3:37. The game was tied for 3:40.

——

• 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