Rowan, Barber Guide NC State Past Wake Forest 75-72

WASHINGTON, Sporting Alert – Maverick Rowan and Anthony Barber combined to score 46 points and North Carolina State beat Wake Forest 75-72 in the New York Life ACC Tournament first round at Verizon Center – Washington, D.C. Box Score

Rowan made a career-best six 3-pointers, including a few big ones late in the game, and went 8-of-16 from the floor overall to lead the way for the 12th-seeded Wolfpack (16-16) with 24 points and four rebounds.

Rowan, who was being bothered by a foot injury scored just six points in the first half in Tuesday’s game.

He rebounded well in the second part of the contest, though.

“I felt pretty good (in the second half),” he said. “I just let the game come to me.”

Barber, who is averaging 23.4 points per game this season, scored 22 points against Wake Forest on Tuesday and he also finished with six assists, four rebounds and two steals in the win for NC State, which moved on to take on No. 19 Duke in the second round on Wednesday.

Freshman Bryant Crawford had 19 points, six assists and six steals for the 13th-seeded Demon Deacons (11-20), who are heading home.

Codi Miller-McIntyre finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists while Devin Thomas added 12 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks for Wake Forest, which outrebounded the Wolfpack 45-39 and outassisted their conference rivals 17-12.

Mitchell Wilbekin scored 11 points in the defeat for the Demon Deacons, who shot 37.3 percent overall and were 8-of-24 from 3-point range.

Abdul-Malik Abu had nine points and nine rebounds for NC State, which shot 41.7 percent from the floor overall as a team and 43.5 percent from long-range.

The matchup featured 15 ties and 17 lead changes.

Meanwhile, NC State improved to 71-52 all-time in the ACC Tournament, and 8-4 in the conference tourney with Mark Gottfried as head coach, and he was “proud” of the way his team stayed strong and secured the “gutsy win.”

The Wolfpack also improved to 9-4 in the tournament against Wake Forest.

“I’m proud of our team. It was a gutsy win,” Gottfried said.