ATLANTA -- N.C. State’s 61-52 ACC victory against Georgia Tech on Thursday was built on the memories of what happened the last time the two teams played.

It was a month ago, when the Yellow Jackets exposed the Wolfpack defensively, shooting 51 percent in an 82-71 win in Raleigh.

“That hurt us,” said Wolfpack Mark Gottfried.

But it also served N.C. State well on Thursday in Philips Arena. The Wolfpack (18-7, 7-3 ACC) clamped down defensively on Georgia Tech (9-15, 2-8), forcing the Yellow Jackets into a 32.2 percent shooting night on its way to a third consecutive triumph.

Three N.C. State basketball recruits have been selected to play in the 35th McDonald's All-America boys basketball game on March 28 in Chicago.

The Wolfpack recruits are Rodney Purvis of Raleigh Upper Room; Tyler Lewis, who played at Forsyth Country Day in 2010-11 and is at Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill this season; and T.J. Warren, who played at Durham Riverside and Raleigh Word of God before going to Brewster Academy for this season.

All three grew up playing in North Carolina.

Duke recruit Rasheed Sulaimon of Houston (Texas) Strake Jesuit and North Carolina recruit Marcus Page of Linn-Marr (Iowa) Marion also are on the all-star team.

Three Points from N.C. State's 87-76 win over Wake Forest on Saturday:

1) Brown back on track

State guard Lorenzo Brown had 15 points with eight assists in a season-high 38 minutes on Saturday. He even gave a half-smile as he left the locker room after putting an end to his mini-slump.

"It was a little better," Brown said.

Brown, who is his own biggest critic, was pleased with his turnovers, only two — a low in ACC play for him. He was more aggressive against the Deacs with 11 shots (making six) after only taking five against Boston College on Wednesday, despite an obvious mismatch with Jordan Daniels.

Updated 7:30 p.m.

RALEIGH — N.C. State will always have Wake Forest.

The ACC will regularly take a game against North Carolina away from the Wolfpack when the league expands to 14 teams but State and Wake will continue to play twice a season.

Since 2006, that has been a good thing for State. The Pack beat the Demon Deacons 87-76 on Saturday for the fifth straight time and the ninth time in the past 12 games.

Scott Wood's 23 points lifted the Pack in a closer call than the earlier meeting this season, a 76-40 wipeout in Winston-Salem, and the two lopsided State wins from last season (by 25 and 21 points).

N.C. State no longer will be guaranteed home-and-away basketball matchups with North Carolina in the new 18-game conference schedule announced this morning by the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ACC announced a new scheduling format this morning for when Syracuse and Pittsburgh join the league. According to the new schedule, beginning in 2012-13, each school will play every other league team at least once each season, but each school  will have only one "primary partner" for guaranteed home-and-away games.

Updated at 12:40 p.m. with scheduling details and a statement by ACC commissioner John Swofford.

Lost in the way N.C. State played Wednesday night in a 56-51 win over Boston College was the fact that the Wolfpack surpassed its win total from last season and equaled its ACC win total.

The Wolfpack improved to 16-7 overall, one more win from last season, and 5-3 in the ACC, it finished 5-11 in the conference in each of the past two seasons.

State coach Mark Gottfried is more concerned with how his team has played than its record.

Three Points from Wednesday's 56-51 win at Boston College:

1) Body language counts

When Richard Howell, Lorenzo Brown and C.J. Leslie slumped their shoulders, dropped their heads and sloughed off to the locker room at halftime, they were greeted with a warning from N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried.

"I told them that is not acceptable and we won't do that — and we have not done that any night this year," Gottfried said. "We were allowing things to bother us. Mentally, we were out of synch."

Updated 11:15 p.m.

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Boston College started the week at No. 229 in the Rating Percentage Index, one spot ahead of Savannah State and one behind Lafayette.

That's not the kind of company N.C. State can afford to keep if it wants to end its season in the four-letter postseason tournament instead of the three-letter one. Scott Wood and C.J. Leslie saved the Wolfpack from an RPI-crushing loss on Wednesday — and string of other four-letter words from a portion of its fan base.

Wood (16 points) and Leslie (13) lifted a cold-shooting and sloppy State (16-7, 5-3 ACC) team to an ugly 56-51 ACC win, in name only, over the Eagles.

Recruit ratings in football can be wildly unpredictable.

Here's a review of five long shots who turned out to be among the best college players in the nation.

N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien, in sizing up his 23 signees, believes the Pack put together a "long, tall, very athletic class."

Take the four defensive ends signed by the Pack All are at least 6 feet 4, weigh at least 220 pounds. All can run, O'Brien said, and fit the progression the Pack has made the last couple of years in getting taller, longer.

"When you look at the kids who are pass rushers now on the outside that we signed, that's a whole different breed than we brought in before," O'Brien said.