It wasn’t always pretty, but in the end, the result was there for the NC State men’s basketball team against the Loyola Ramblers Saturday. The Pack defeated Loyola 79-77 for its fifth win of the season in a tightly contested affair.

Freshman point guard Dennis Smith Jr. led the Pack (5-1) against Loyola (5-2) with a career-high 30 points, adding six rebounds and seven assists. He was joined in double figures by redshirt sophomore guard Torin Dorn, who had 20 points, and redshirt senior guard Terry Henderson with 19.

“I’m much more comfortable,” Smith said. “It’s early in the year; I’m still finding my way just like everybody else on the team. We’re going to get a lot better, but we’re off to a solid start right now.”

The game did not start the way the Pack wanted, as the Ramblers found themselves up 36-27 with 7:01 to play in the first half, courtesy of strong shooting, particularly from beyond the arc as the Pack’s perimeter defense was an issue.

“We’ve got to be better defensively for longer periods,” head coach Mark Gottfried said. “We can be really good defensively for spurts. Whether we’re big small, playing against a small team, all those different things; we’ve got to get better there.”

The Pack awakened late in the first half, ripping off a 15-6 run over the final seven minutes, including a beautiful pass from Smith to Henderson for thunderous dunk that brought the Pack within four and ignited the PNC crowd. Freshman point guard Markell Johnson finished a layup for the final scoring play of the half to give NC State its first lead of the game.

“He [Smith] was in a great place mentally all day,” Gottfried said. “He came out with great energy and got everybody else involved. He made some unbelievable passes, took the ball strong to the basket. He made two foul shots late, which you want your point guard to do. He got a couple big steals; he played terrific.”

The Pack shot very well from the field in the opening half, connecting on 58.1 percent of its attempts. Henderson, Smith and Dorn all finished the opening half with double digit points with 16, 13 and 11 points respectively.

“We [the guards] have a lot of confidence,” Henderson said. “Going into every game, we understand that we have a target on our back because of all the publicity and all that, but we still go out there and play each and every night as hard as we can.”

The Pack started the second half right where it left off in the first, opening with a 7-0 run in the first 1:35 of the half, punctuated by a steal and layup by Smith that sent the crowd into a frenzy.

Loyola recaptured some of its first half swagger however, going for a 17-10 run after Smith’s layup, briefly taking the lead before Dorn regained it for the Pack before a media timeout, part of  a stretch of nine-straight points in the second half for him.

“I just try to take good shots, open shots and make them,” Dorn said. “Get to the basket and get offensive rebounds, do all the little things that help a team win.”

The Pack picked it back up coming out of the timeout with a 9-3 run to bring its lead back to five, including a couple more nice drives to the hoop by Smith. However, back to back threes by junior forward Aundre Jackson and junior guard Ben Richardson, who led Loyola with 20 and 14 points respectively, gave Loyola a two-point lead with 7:38 to play. Smith then promptly knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Pack back up.

Junior forward Abdul- Malik Abu made a huge play late in the game for the Pack, grabbing an offensive rebound as the shot clock expired and slamming down a dunk to put the Pack up by four with 1:35 to play.

The Ramblers fouled Henderson late with the lead cut to two points, but he missed his first shot, giving Loyola a chance to tie.

Johnson came up with a huge steal and was fouled on the Ramblers’ ensuing possession, but he missed his shot as well. However, that ate up a big chunk of time and Loyola’s buzzer beater from half court missed, sealing the win for NC State.

The Pack will head out for its first true road game of the season next, taking on Illinois Tuesday in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.