NC State basketball rallies in second half, earns 79-77 ACC road win at Wake Forest
D.J. Burns transferred to N.C. State to play in big games, compete in the ACC and see how he measured up.
And then came the Wake Forest game Saturday.
Burns was the best player on the court, scoring 23 of a career-high 31 points in the second half as the Wolfpack surged from behind to take a 79-77 victory at Lawrence Joel Coliseum.
Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes called it an “unbelievable performance.” Wolfpack guard Jarkel Joiner said it was the kind of play Burns’ teammates see every day in practice and are seeing more and more in games, helping the Pack (17-5, 7-4 ACC) look more and more like an NCAA tournament team.
“The kid probably played the most complete game of his career,” NCSU coach Kevin Keatts said of his big center.
It also came on a day when sophomore Terquavion Smith, the Pack’s leading scorer, spent much of the game on the bench in foul trouble, left to be an antsy cheerleader.
With Smith watching in the second half, Burns was near unstoppable, working down low to score with a variety of short hook shots and strong baseline moves.
“He’s a natural-born scorer,” Joiner said. “He was big-time today.”
Forbes often elected to use 7-1 center Matthew Marsh one-on-one against Burns, saying Burns was too good a passer out of double teams -- a pick-your-poison strategy. Burns did have his problems at the foul line, and Forbes tested him with 1:22 left in the secondl half and the score tied 73-73.
But Burns responded by knocking down both free throws, answering that challenge.
Keatts later noted Burns said he was bothered at the foul line by Wake Forest fans yelling “Whopper” — playing off his size — but put aside such distractions on the final two free throws.
Smith, who had 16 points, was back in the game by then and had a critical basket for the Pack. His driving shot with 38 seconds remaining gave the Wolfpack a 77-74 lead.
Damari Monsanto, who led Wake Forest with 22 points, and Tyree Appleby (18) each missed 3-point jumpers that would have tied it for the Demon Deacons (14-8, 6-5). Joiner, fouled on the rebound after the Appleby miss, hit both free throws for a 79-74 lead with 11 seconds left — the last of his 17 points.
Burns missed seven of his 11 shots in the opening half, settling for short jumpers at times that played into the Deacons’ hands.
“Every post guy loves to shoot jump shots and I said, ‘No, that’s what they want you to do,’ ” Keatts said. “So I wanted him to stay aggressive.”
Burn, a good listener, finished 14-of-26 from the field and had nine rebounds and two blocked shots in 32 minutes.
“Once it got going, it just felt like it was going to keep going,” Burns said, smiling.
The Wolfpack fell behind by 10 points in the second half, but Burns went to work and Keatts got some solid play from everyone he turned to in a physical game.
LJ Thomas hit a corner 3-pointer late in the second half -- off a Burns pass -- that gave the Pack the lead for keeps and Casey Morsell followed with another 3. Ebe Dowuona blocked shots, Breon Pass was good defensively and Greg Gantt finished with a team-high 10 rebounds as the Wolfpack had a 42-37 edge on the boards.
“I feel like this team is getting to the point where everybody is involved, everybody is willing to play their role a lot more than they were in the beginning,” Burns said.
The Wolfpack now has road wins at Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. After the loss at North Carolina last weekend, the Pack beat Notre Dame at home before coming to Winston-Salem to face a team that was 10-1 at home and desperate to win after two straight ACC losses.
“This group we have, it’s more about the team than what we had last year,” Smith said. “Everybody wants to win, so everybody puts the team first. That’s how we pull through and win games.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2023 at 3:09 PM.
