Atlanta — Lorenzo Charles had never stepped to the free-throw line before with the opportunity to win a basketball game, and based on the outcome of his first attempt, everyone at the Omni Friday night could tell.

Charles, with two chances to give fourth-seeded N.C .State a victory over fifth-seeded Wake Forest in the opening round of the ACC Tournament, badly missed his target, coming up short and to the left of the center of the rim.

Fortunately for Charles and the Wolfpack, among the many mistakes made by Wake Forest senior Alvis Rogers in the game’s final 20 seconds included fouling the Wolfapck sophomore while he was in the act of shooting. That gave the sophomore from the Bronx, N.Y., two cracks at breaking the 70-70 tie with three seconds to play, instead of a much more pressurized one-and-one.

“During the timeout, Coach Valvano told me to relax and take my time,” said Charles, who recorded his first career game with double digit points and rebounds by getting 12 of each in the 71-70 victory. “The first one was off to the left and a little short. After that, I moved to the right, and it dropped right in.

“When it left my hand, it had good backspin, and I thought it would be good. It was a routine free throw, just like shooting them in practice.”

Charles won’t have much time to get any more practice in – the Wolfpack now sets its sights on becoming a spoiler when it faces defending national champion North Carolina in Saturday’s first semifinal. The No. Tar Heels, playing without junior center Sam Perkins, easily dispatched Clemson 105-79 in their tournament opener.

For Charles, who has come so far over the last month of the season, standing in front of 16,723 spectators with the game on the line was hardly a routine situation. A less confident Charles – the one, say, who barely scored any points before New Year’s Day – might have missed the second shot too, forcing an overtime and an uncertain future for an N.C. State club looking to secure its second-consecutive NCAA Tournament bid.

“If there is anything good that came out of the injury to Dereck [Whittenburg] earlier this year, it was the emergence of Lorenzo,” Valvano said. “I also felt at the end, he’d get one of the two free throws. He’s a pretty good free-throw shooter.”