Three Points from N.C. State's 66-62 win over Clemson:

1) Winning with the changeup

There's winning without your fastball and then there's winning without your fastball, curveball or slider. That's what N.C. State did on Sunday.

C.J. Leslie and Lorenzo Brown scored six points each and the Wolfpack's veteran quartet finished the game with fewer combined field goals (10) than Clemson's Devin Booker (13) had by himself.

RALEIGH — N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried always says nothing comes easy in the ACC.

Nothing was easy about No. 14 N.C. State's 66-62 win over Clemson on Sunday night.

With a late surge from senior Richard Howell, and free throws by Scott Wood, the Wolfpack finally put the Tigers away after a gutsy effort from Devin Booker, who had a career-best 27 points.

N.C. State had two fouls to give at the end of Wednesday's game at Maryland.

Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried used one of the fouls and he said Friday that he thought he used what was the best strategy to win the game.

Maryland's Alex Len scored off a Pe'Shon Howard miss with 0.9 seconds left for a 51-50 win, but Gottfried was pleased with the shot his defense forced Howard to take.

"The truth of the matter is, Pe'Shon Howard took an off-balance, awful shot and shot an airball, which is what you would want to have," Gottfried said.

Three Points (and 1) from N.C. State's 51-50 loss at Maryland on Wednesday:

1) Mix and match

Some matchups work in your favor and some don't, that's a basic rule of basketball, especially for a team with as many nontraditional parts as N.C. State. Maryland is/was a difficult matchup for N.C. State (and most teams) with its size and athleticism.

Working from the baseline that N.C. State lost a one-point game to a good team on the road, at the buzzer, after a miserable start, the two biggest problems for N.C. State on Wednesday were forward Alex Len and wing Dez Wells.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — If N.C. State played its last ACC basketball game at Maryland on Wednesday, the Wolfpack won't be in a hurry to schedule the Terrapins once they move to the Big Ten.

With a last-second basket from Alex Len, Maryland beat N.C. State 51-50 on Wednesday for the 19th time in 21 home games and 10th time in 11 overall meetings with the Wolfpack.

The loss knocks N.C. State to 3-1 in the ACC and ends its 10-game winning streak. The Pack (14-3) fought back from a slow start to take the lead in the final minute but couldn't close out the Terps. Len's putback of a Pe'Shon Howard miss with 0.9 seconds left sealed the win for the Terps.

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It's still the "dumbest" thing he has ever done, Will Privette insists, but the N.C. State student who stormed the court in his wheelchair after the Wolfpack's win over No. 1 Duke on Saturday has enjoyed the whirlwind of attention he has gotten since.

Privette and N.C. State star C.J. Leslie were on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday morning, re-telling their story from the wild post-game celebration after the Wolfpack's win over Duke.

Maybe coach Mark Gottfried was onto something with his whole wet-blanket routine immediately following N.C. State's 84-76 win over No. 1 Duke on Saturday.

Over the past 20 years, N.C. State has 14 regular-season wins over Duke and UNC. The Wolfpack's record in the next ACC game after a win over Duke or UNC is 1-12. That lone win was actually over UNC in 2002-03, which was preceded by a home win over No. 3 Duke.

None of the follow-up losses were to UNC or Duke but five were to Maryland. N.C. State's next opponent? You guessed it, Maryland.

As N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried said, Duke vs. the Wolfpack was "a grown-man's game. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

RALEIGH—Duke didn’t play bad in its 84-76 loss at N.C. State. The Wolfpack simply played better.

“They played a heck of a game,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the Wolfpack. “We fought like crazy throughout the game and gave ourselves a chance to win. State played outstanding basketball.”

Lorenzo Brown and Richard Howell drew extra praise from Krzyzewski, as he said both were among the best in the country at their positions. Both were able to win their individual matchups with Quinn Cook and Mason Plumlee, two of Duke’s top performers this year. Here’s a closer look at how each individual matchup played out.

Quinn Cook (6-1, 175) vs. Lorenzo Brown (6-5, 186)

N.C. State scored 22 fast-break points, and that, in Krzyzewski’s mind, was the difference in the game.

Three Points (and 1) from N.C. State's 84-76 win over Duke:

1) You can't fake confidence

While the fans and N.C. State players stormed the court to celebrate the Wolfpack's win over Duke, coach Mark Gottfried fretted to ESPN's Jeannine Edwards about Wednesday's trip to Maryland. That's what coaches do, understood, but if there's anything N.C. State has shown in 53 games under Gottfried, it's that when it gets confidence, it keeps it.

The crazy thing about N.C. State last March was it started to play with confidence after a four-game losing streak. What will a rare win over Duke, and 10 straight wins overall, do for this group?

RALEIGH — Move over, No. 1 Duke, and make room for first-place N.C. State.

No. 20 N.C. State knocked off previously unbeaten Duke 84-76 on Saturday afternoon in a throwback ACC game which reset the conference order.

With 16 points and 18 rebounds from forward Richard Howell and a game-high 25 points from forward C.J. Leslie, N.C. State won its 10th straight game and improved to 3-0 in the ACC.

N.C. State hasn't hit either of those milestones since the 1988-89 season, which happens to be the last time the Wolfpack won an ACC title.

Rather than make declarative statements about the meaning of the win, only the fifth over Duke in 26 tries since 2000, N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried kind of shrugged when asked about it.

"I don't know that it validates anything," Gottfried said. "I don't really get into all that, I'm just happy for our players."