RALEIGH – Turns out, this rollercoaster had another dip.

From blowing the home game against Florida State to scoring a road win against SMU last week, Wake Forest was off for a week before coming to N.C. State on Saturday.

Playing a team that was embarrassed earlier this week, Wake Forest was slow to start and its defense didn’t travel to Lenovo Center in an 85-73 loss to N.C. State.

“I just didn’t feel a sense of urgency and I don’t know why,” coach Steve Forbes said. “I obviously did a poor job of getting them ready to play because I didn’t feel that sense of urgency early in the game.

“I don’t want to say desperation but what it takes to win on the road.”

This isn’t last season; Wake Forest (19-8, 11-5 ACC) has had that level of urgency to win six ACC road games, against this being the Deacons’ third road loss in the league.

Though, the other two road losses were to Clemson and Louisville, the teams tied for second place in the ACC; N.C. State’s (11-16, 4-12) win doesn’t even move them out of the bottom three of the ACC standings (the bottom three teams do not go to the ACC tournament).

“I wasn’t real happy with practice on Thursday or Friday. I didn’t lose my mind,” Forbes said in a matter-of-fact tone, when asked if he had indications before Saturday’s game started that the Deacons would lack energy. “But I told them, in this manner that I’m talking to you, ‘Look, that’s not who we are. It’s not where we need to be right now, going into a game like this.’

“By no means did we overlook them or anything like that. I just didn’t feel that grit.”

That shows up in a few stats. N.C. State held a 36-29 rebounding edge, including 11 offensive rebounds for 10 second-chance points. The Wolfpack also made a season-best 13 3-pointers, four apiece from seldom-used freshman Paul McNeil Jr. and Dontrez Styles.

Wake Forest gave up the first 11 points of the game. On the three occasions the Deacons took one-point leads in the first half, they were unable to extend the advantage.

When the lead finally got to five, at 61-56 with 8½ minutes left, it wound up being the death knell.

For the team that was leading.

Wake Forest went from scoring 25 points on its first 15 possessions of the second half to scoring six on its next 15 possessions. The Deacons’ offensive rhythm eroded along with, seemingly, whatever NCAA tournament bubble margin for error that existed after their win at SMU last weekend.

While that was going on with Wake’s offense, its defense — the calling card of this team all season — struggled. Which might be putting things lightly.

N.C. State swung momentum with three 3s — by Michael O’Connell, Jayden Taylor and McNeil — in 57 seconds after Wake Forest led by five. The Wolfpack scored on eight of 12 possessions starting with that spurt, taking a 76-65 lead with 2:10 left and into the period of the game extended with trips to the free-throw line.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the way we defended,” Forbes said of Wake’s offense in the last quarter of the game. “We didn’t get … stops, so then we’re coming down, putting all this pressure on us to make plays offensively.”

Wake’s only field goal for the last 10 minutes of the game was a Juke Harris layup with 1:58 left.

It came after he missed two free throws.

Cameron Hildreth led Wake Forest with 16 points on 5-for-12 shooting, Tre’Von Spillers had 15 points on 3-for-9 shooting, Hunter Sallis had 13 points and was 3-for-10, and Efton Reid III had 12 points on 3-for-8.

So, that’s a combined 14-for-39 (35.9%) shooting for Wake’s quartet of seniors.

McNeil was making his first career start. He had the Wolfpack’s first five points, on a put-back and 3-pointer, and two offensive rebounds in the first few minutes.

McNeil had 56 points before Saturday, having played in 19 games. He torched the Deacons for 24 on 8-for-13 shooting.

The start of this one was ominous enough.

N.C. State scored the first eight points, in 1 minute, 55 seconds, and Forbes fired off an early timeout. Wake Forest scored the next 10 and eventually had a one-point lead three times, but never more than that in the first half.

Hildreth missed a couple of free throws when it was a one-point deficit and there was 3:03 left in the first half; N.C. State outscored Wake Forest 10-5 from there to head into halftime with a 40-34 lead.

TIP-INS: Parker Friedrichsen only played five minutes, all in the first half, after scoring 18 points in 30 minutes at SMU. … Styles scored 22 points for N.C. State, 15 of them coming in the first half. … Reid fouled out of the game and three of his fouls were on the offensive end, including two in the first three minutes of the game. … Sallis was Wake’s leading rebounder with nine of them; no other Deacon had more than four. … Wake Forest players were not made available to the media after the game.