The NC State men’s basketball team battles back a deficit to make for a close game behind a strong performance from one member of its big three. Then, all of a sudden, the light switch flips off and the opposing team breaks off a run in the closing minutes of the contest to come away with the win. Sound familiar? It should. It’s happened in nearly every Wolfpack loss this season.

Bill Murray may as well have been on the roster, as it was Groundhog Day in the worst imaginable way for the Pack (10-15, 3-11 ACC) in a gut-wrenching 69-51 loss to Wake Forest inside PNC Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 9, giving NC State its fifth straight loss.

“Once they got going scoring, we didn’t have enough because we didn’t play well to be able to score to match those guys,” said head coach Kevin Keatts. “And so at the end of the day, my teams are never going to win a game if we score 51 points. … We did some good stuff, but our offense wasn’t clicking enough to be able to win a game.”

After an ugly offensive first half, the Wolfpack went down by nine before tying the game up at 45 apiece and trading blows with the Demon Deacons (20-5, 20-4 ACC) for the next few minutes. But embarrassingly for the Pack, Wake Forest ripped off a 16-0 run in the last four minutes of the game to pull away for its 20th win of the year, losing to the Demon Deacons for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

“I wouldn’t say we ran out of gas,” said redshirt sophomore guard Dereon Seabron. “I would just say we had a couple mental breakdowns on the defensive end. And then I think when we were coming down, we weren’t getting anything on the offensive end. I think people were getting frustrated on the defensive end, that’s why we gave up those easy layups and wide-open 3s.”

Seabron did everything in his power to will the Wolfpack to a victory, scoring 17 of his 22 points in the second half, as well as 17 of the Pack’s 23 second-half points, but the inspired effort was too little, too late.

On the bright side, like many other head coaches this season, Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes was full of praise for the guard after the game and talked about how difficult he was to guard.

Outside of Seabron, no member of the Pack made more than three field goals. The Wolfpack shot just 32.2% from the field, but if you take out Seabron and sophomore forward Ebenezer Dowuona, who was on a minutes restriction according to Keatts, that number drops to a disgusting 19.5% clip. NC State shot 13.6% from deep in the loss.

Adversely, Wake Forest shot 54% from the floor and 45% from 3, with four players finishing in double digits in terms of scoring. The spectacular Alondes Williams started slow, scoring just two points in the first half, but erupted in the second, finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists, including a beautiful, no-look cross-court flip to Khadim Sy, which essentially sealed the game.

Sy finished with 13 points and seven boards, Isaiah Mucius and Daivien Williamson had 24 points combined, while Jake Laravia had a near triple-double, finishing with six points, seven rebounds and eight assists.

Meanwhile, senior forward Jericole Hellems and freshman guard Terquavion Smith ended the contest with a combined 17 points on 6 of 28 shooting. Sophomore forward Jaylon Gibson finished with two points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks, but also had several defensive breakdowns, including one where Sy slipped right past him for a wide-open dunk.

“Tough night for us offensively. If we don’t have three of three, that plays well, it’s sometimes hard,” Keatts said. “And then when you look at our starters, Jericole goes 3 for [12] and Terquavion goes 3 for 16 then [junior guard] Casey Morsell goes 1 for 7, it’s hard to be a good team when that happens.”

The first half of the contest gave the impression this would be a close contest. Wake got out to a quick 10-4 lead after a couple Mucius 3s, but NC State got back-to-back 3s from Smith to tie things right back up. That would be about the last time Smith made an impact in the contest.

Wake Forest would get out to a small lead a handful of times, but the Pack would battle back each time to make it a game. NC State struggled at the rim early, dealing with Wake’s physicality, but Dowuona made some shots inside to give the Pack a chance. However, NC State could never quite get the lead and went into the second down by three.

After the Demon Deacons got out to a nine-point lead about five minutes into the second half, the Seabron show began. Much like he did many times earlier in the season, Seabron got layup after layup, drive after drive, to give the Wolfpack a fighting chance after it seemed dead in the water.

Unfortunately for it, Seabron’s free throws to make it a 53-51 contest with 5:19 remaining were NC State’s last points of the game. Wake broke out on a 16-0 run with all five members of its starting lineup scoring. Williams had three assists and a steal during this time, sending Wake to a 69-51 victory.

“I just think we didn’t make shots and then we let it get away from us,” Keatts said. “With that 16-0 run, we had 51 points at that time, I think it was 58-51 and we didn’t make shots, we didn’t move the ball well … and then it got away from us. If you watch the game, everybody knows it was a little bit closer than that but obviously, the end result, it is what it is.”

NC State’s loss is its fifth straight and sends the Wolfpack to the bottom of the ACC Standings, right behind Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech and Boston College, respectively. The Wolfpack gets those teams in that exact order on its schedule next, which have now become must-win games for Keatts. With matchups vs. UNC-Chapel Hill, and at Wake and Florida State to end the season, NC State has to take advantage of these next three games.

But after five difficult-to-stomach losses, that’s nowhere near a guarantee.

“We talk about it,” Keatts said about the ACC standings. “We concentrate on the next game. … But I think when you get behind, I’ve kind of stayed away from the negative part of it; I want to be as positive with these guys because I think they need positivity. They’re a little bit sensitive. They should be. So I don’t put extra pressure on them, saying ‘Hey, we’ll be in last place,’ because I don’t think they can handle that.”

Next up, the Pack will hit the road to take on Pitt in Pittsburgh on Saturday, Feb. 12. That game will start at 3 p.m. and can be broadcast on the ACC Network.

“Well we got to take the positives,” Keatts said. “For 36 minutes, it was a good game, and then the last four, it wasn’t and so we gotta take the positives. … They’re competitors in that locker room, they don’t like losing. Obviously, it’s a little frustrating. It should be. I would be bothered if they weren’t frustrated. But obviously we gotta keep on plugging and try to figure it out.”