RALEIGH – Another grinding game turned into a 69-51 rout in Wake Forest’s latest ACC road win, this one coming against N.C. State at PNC Arena.

The Deacons hit 20 wins this season – and 10 in the ACC – by holding the Wolfpack scoreless for the final five minutes, while at the same time getting key scores from seemingly every player on the court.

“I kept telling them it’s not rocket science. At the timeouts I’m like, ‘Hey, enjoy the moment, enjoy each other,’” coach Steve Forbes said. “We have really, really good chemistry. And they really like each other and enjoy playing with each other.

“They don’t care who scores. So yeah, the ball finds the open shot. And so, to their credit they stepped up and they made them, too.”

If you go back a bucket further in Wake Forest’s game-ending 16-0 run, it was Isaiah Mucius who sparked things with a 3-pointer. N.C. State’s Dereon Seabron added a couple of free throws – those turned out to be the Wolfpack’s final points – and then it was Daivien Williamson scoring twice, Jake LaRavia adding a free throw and Alondes Williams scoring on a drive.

With that pushing the Deacons (20-5, 10-4 ACC) to a 10-point lead, Williams threw a cross-court, left-handed skip pass to Khadim Sy in the corner in front of Wake’s bench – and Sy stroked a 3-pointer that turned the last 2½ minutes of this into a stress-free affair.

“We started getting stops, and once we started getting stops and getting out in transition and playing Wake Forest basketball, that’s when things turned around for us,” said Williamson, who was one of four Deacons to score in double figures.

Williams had 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists – 15 of those points coming in the second half. Mucius and Sy scored 13 apiece and Williamson added 11 points, with LaRavia turning in a six-point, seven-rebound, eight-assist performance.

Since back-to-back road losses wrapped around the turn of the calendar year, the Deacons are 4-1 on the road – and three of those have been themed by sterling game-ending stretches.

At Virginia, it was a 23-8 run to end the game, lasing about 8½ minutes. At Georgia Tech, it was a 21-4 run over about the same amount of time.

And here at N.C. State, it was a 16-0 suffocation that punctuated this latest road conquest.

“We’re changing things a lot, it’s a lot of first times this year not only for myself but for the team as well,” Williamson said. “It feels good, it always feels good to win. I’m proud of the team and I’m proud of everybody just for contributing to the win tonight.”

The benchmarks are worth noting: It’s the first 20-win season since the 2009-10 season, and it’s the first time since the 2008-09 season that Wake Forest has won double-digit games in the ACC (that was when the league slate was 16 games instead of the 20 it is now).

This is hardly the end of the journey, with six regular-season games left, an ACC tournament and … well, whatever comes afterward.

But it’s a good checkpoint to take stock of where this program is.

“Proud of my team to get to 20 wins but we’ve got a lot of games left. I’m happy for our fans and happy for our community and happy for our institution,” Forbes said. “Respect is a hard thing to get back once you lose it, and I think we’re starting to gain the respect that Wake Forest once had in this league and where we belong.”

On the surface it’s an 18-point win, but it was more nerve-inducing than that indicates.

Wake Forest only trailed after the first possession of the game. The Deacons never trailed in the second half, though it was tied 45-45 about halfway through.

Forbes took a timeout at that point, and Williams drilled a 3-pointer when play resumed. Wake Forest led for the rest of the game.

“It seems like every time we came out of a timeout we made a big basket when we needed it,” Forbes said. “That’s not because I drew up some super play, those guys make plays.

“I thought it was a really good team game.”