By Phillip Murray

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) Wake Forest finally pushed through a tough second half to finally earn an Atlantic Coast Conference win. And that has left North Carolina State in a usually bad position to start league play under fifth-year coach Mark Gottfried. The match up started out as back and forth contest between both teams going into the half with Wake Forest leading 27-25. The Deacons exploded out the second half going on a 13-0 run to lead 40-25. The Wolfpack did respond orchestrating their own run going 16-0 to take a 46-44 lead with 11:38 remaining in the game. It was the clutch performance by Dinos Mitoglou who made three 3s in the second half, helping Wake Forest go 7 for 14 from behind the arc after halftime

Mitoglou scored 13 of his 15 points after halftime, including the 3-pointer that started the decisive run that helped the Demon Deacons beat the Wolfpack 77-74 on Sunday night. It was a lackluster day in terms of shooting for both teams on Sunday. Both Wake Forest and N.C State shot for 42% from the field. N.C State failed to get any tempo going by not being able to effectively spread the ball around, failing to get the entire team involved. ACC leading scorer Anthony Barber continued his season scoring average of 23 points by netting 26 points on floor shooting 49%. Aside from Barber, freshman Maverick Rowan was the only other Wolfpack player to get double-digit points with 13. Wake Forest on the other hand, while shooting poorly from the field still managed to get four of its five starters in double-digit scoring.

Devin Thomas added 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (10-5, 1-2 ACC), who have lost tough games to No. 14 Duke and No. 16 Louisville in the past eight days. They used a 10-2 burst midway through Sunday’s second half to finally take control and beat the Wolfpack at home for the fourth straight year. With the loss N.C State falls to 10-6 (0-3), which puts the Wolfpack in a steep hole to acquire a fifth straight ACC tournament bid. Being second to last in the conference, that goal will be an extremely tough uphill climb. If N.C State wants to turn this season around and start to make a run for the ACC tourney, they are going to have to abandon the trend that has been plaguing them this season, especially in conference games. The Wolfpack will get another shot on Wednesday when they face off against Florida State.

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N.C. State hosts Florida State on Wednesday.
Wake Forest visits Virginia Tech on Wednesday.