RALEIGH _ Sometimes salvation in sports comes quickly, unexpectedly, and from unlikely sources.

So it proved for N.C. State, which returned to its home court on a warm Sunday afternoon and came away with a 67-65 victory on Ben McCauley’s dunk of a missed 3-pointer, thrown down a blink of an eye before the final buzzer sounded.

“This is amazing, this is great,” McCauley said afterward. “I really don’t have any words for it.”

This has not been an easy season for McCauley. The 6-foot-10 junior began the year coming off the bench after starting every game in 2007. In fact, he has only started a third of N.C. State’s contests as he, like the rest of the Wolfpack, adjusts to the imposing interior presence of freshman J.J. Hickson.

“It took awhile for everyone to kind of figure out their roles and everything on the team,” said sophomore Trevor Ferguson, who had two late steals and a crucial 3-pointer that we’ll get back to shortly. “Ben’s been working harder than anybody to figure out what he can do to help this team win.”

Sunday’s game against Wake Forest was, in a sense, a microcosm of the season for McCauley and the Wolfpack. Expected to do big things this year, both sputtered.

The Pack fell behind from the outset, and trailed 31-24 at halftime. Wake guards Ish Smith and Jeff Teague, an impressive freshman, dominated the game. The pair drove the ball to the basket, took the majority of their team’s shots, and scored the majority of their team’s points during the opening half.

“We’re a very good penetrating team,” said Dino Gaudio, the Demon Deacons' first-year coach. “That’s our thing. We’re going to take people off the bounce.”

Meanwhile a lethargic N.C. State hit 30 percent of its shots against Wake's improved defense, and played without sufficient passion or purpose to engage the crowd in the three-quarters-full RBC Center. "We didn't give them much to cheer at early," coach Sidney Lowe said.

Often the Pack settled for jumpers; only 2 of 11 tries from 3-point range found the mark in the first half. Two starters failed to score in the period, among them McCauley, who had a single rebound in seven minutes.

The story remained the same through much of the second half, although N.C. State played with more verve.

Wake Forest retained a three-possession lead, 51-44, after an Ish swish of a 3-pointer with 9:21 remaining. But by then, a subtle shift had occurred, fueled by Ferguson, of all people.

Courtney Fells, the Wolfpack’s top perimeter threat, incurred his fourth personal foul with 11:55 to go. When the teams resumed the court following a TV timeout, Lowe eschewed more obvious options and replaced Fells with Ferguson, a floppy-haired redhead rarely seen during games.

Ferguson is a modestly-athletic everyman who came to Raleigh after originally signing with Pittsburgh. He had played in eight games this season and scored a total of eight points. Two of his appearances came in ACC action, for a total of two minutes, including mop-up action in the disheartening loss at Duke.

But Ferguson is a hustler. He embraced Lowe’s importuning to play tougher defense. And, on a team whose freshman guards are hesitant shooters, he is not afraid to catch and let fly. “I was just trying to get out there,” Ferguson said. “I really wanted to go out there and try to concentrate on playing some defense and getting some stops.”

He delivered. First, he took advantage of an ill-conceived drive into the lane by Wake forward James Johnson and picked off the freshman’s panicked pass. Three possessions later, following a missed jumper by Smith, Ferguson hit a 3-pointer from the left wing.

The shot not only cut the Deacs’ advantage to 51-47 with 8:31 left, but engaged the crowd. Wake soon pushed the lead back to seven, but the momentum had shifted. Less than four minutes later, Gavin Grant’s 3-pointer tied the score at 58.

Down the stretch, no one scored more points than McCauley. He also dug out a loose ball on defense that led to one of Javi Gonzalez’s six assists, ending with a reverse dunk by Hickson. The fast break basket gave the Pack its first lead of the game at the 2:58 mark.

But with 13.4 seconds left and a two-point lead, Hickson missed two free throws, opening the door for Smith. The slight sophomore attacked the gut of N.C. State’s retreating defense and flipped in the tying score with 5.2 seconds remaining.

Following an N.C. State timeout, McCauley, one of the best passing big men in modern ACC history, inbounded the ball. No defender guarded his toss, always a questionable strategy. That allowed the ball to go directly to Grant, previously productive in similar circumstances.

As Grant dribbled to the frontcourt and launched an open 3-pointer from the right wing, McCauley, trailing the play, flew unimpeded toward the rim.

“Sure enough, he missed it, luckily for me, and I was there with enough time left,” McCauley said. “And I didn’t want to take any chances laying it up or anything, and I threw it home.”

Wake, 13-7, was left standing in stunned disbelief, now without an ACC road win in four tries. All three of the Deacons’ conference victories came at home. N.C. State, similarly stuck in the muddled middle of the conference race as the ACC season nears its midpoint, likewise moved to 3-4, 14-7 overall.

Comparably important in the long run, the Pack may have found a useful reserve in Ferguson and a more assured frontline presence in McCauley.

"Those are the kind of players that you enjoy coaching," Lowe said of McCauley. "Those are the kind of players that you enjoy being around, when you know that they're dealing with a tough situation, an adjustment period, but he continued to play. He's worked hard. He stuck with it, and now he's rewarded for his efforts."

For a team still groping toward fulfilment of its considerable promise, that is not a bad example to follow.