The first few minutes of Wednesday night’s game against Virginia were brutal for N.C. State veteran players Ilian Evtimov and Engin Atsur — but the last few were rewarding for their trials.

Atsur was forced to watch the first five minutes tick off the clock from the sideline — his punishment for tardiness to a morning film session. Evtimov had no sooner scored the game’s first basket than he dove out of bounds for a loose ball, rolled into the boards and lay writhing in pain.

“I ran into the player and then fell onto the ground after that, I hit my hip both times on the player and on the ground,” Evtimov said.

Evtimov would leave the court only seconds into the game and return a few minutes later, but it became apparent that he was still ailing as he ran down court still grabbing his hip.

“The first time I came out we put a little cold stuff on it. So I got back in there after being told it was nothing serious — just a bruise or a hip pointer,” Evtimov said. “But it was really sore so I had to come back in the locker room.”

Atsur first saw action at the 14:51 mark, and the junior would play almost the rest of the way but ended the first half with more turnovers than points.

“It wasn’t a great night personally,” Atsur said. “It’s been awhile since I hadn’t started, but it’s not a big deal.”

The Wolfpack were trailing by one when Atsur made his first points of the game on a three-pointer off a feed from Tony Bethel — taking the lead 57-55 with 5:31 to go in the game. A 6-0 run put the Cavaliers up by four with 3:37 left before Evtimov took another Bethel pass and finished in the paint.

“We made the plays we needed to make down the stretch,” Evtimov said. “Everybody contributed in a different way, and we just pulled it out.”

Down by three, Evtimov and Atsur came up with a series of plays to bring back the Pack. After pulling down one of his six defensive rebounds, Evtimov managed to get open in the corner, and Atsur found him for the tying three.

With the game now tied, Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds lost the ball, and it was Atsur who dove on the ground — where he found himself for a large part of the game — and Evtimov signaled for a timeout.

“I knew if he [Atsur] called timeout the referee probably wouldn’t hear him or probably even see him because his back was to the referee,” Evtimov said. “It was an instinct.”

Multiple times Atsur had dove on the floor, showing his determination to make an impact despite his benching.

“We had to get some stops … there was an opportunity to dive on the ball, and Ilian showed great experience.” Atsur said.

Cameron Bennerman scored on a post-up move and Cedric Simmons made one of his three blocks to keep the Pack ahead by two. Evtimov found a cutting Atsur all alone under the hoop for a layup to go up 66-62.

It would be all State needed to win, despite Atsur missing what could have been a critical free throw with two seconds left.

“I’m disappointed, I should have made it,” Atsur said. “But I was lucky enough there was only two seconds left, and so [it] wasn’t enough time for them to get a great shot.”