After all, N.C. State needed silence for its second free-throw attempt.

The Wolfpack didn’t pay for a 10-for-27 effort from the charity stripe, but hitting even a few more of those freebies would have made life a lot less exciting. Not until Virginia missed two 3-point attempts in the final 10 seconds did N.C. State claim a 65-62 win Wednesday night in an Atlantic Coast Conference showdown.

In a game that featured 46 fouls evenly split between the teams, Virginia made its free throws at a 72-percent clip (21-of-29). The Wolfpack’s 38-percent “accuracy” so disappointed the 19,027 fans that raucous cheers filled the arena on the few occasions a free throw hit home.

“I laughed in my mind.I was cheering, too,”said senior guard Justin Gainey of the somewhat sarcastic reactions. “The score could have been a total blowout if we had been making our free throws. That could come back to haunt us. In my mind I didn’t think we would lose, but then it got down real close and I thought, aww, if we lose it’s going to be because of free throws.”

N.C. State (11-2 overall, 2-1 ACC) made just one of its first eight free-throw attempts and hit both shots only once all night, when freshman Damien Wilkins got a pair of friendly bounces for his only successes in six tries.

After those shots gave the Wolfpack a 50-43 lead with 9:37 remaining in the game, Gainey drove the lane for a layup, then hit a jumper to make it 54-45 at the 7:17 mark.

Three missed free throws later, Virginia’s Chris Williams hit a 3-pointer and explosive Cavalier point guard Donald Hand drove the lane three times, was fouled on each occasion and came away with six made foul shots to cut the lead to 60-58.

Hand went to the basket hard one time too many on the next possession, though, when Gainey stepped up and forced a charging call for Hand’s fifth foul.

The Cavaliers’ spark plug took a seat on the bench with 17 points, 13 of those in the second half.

“Down the stretch he was very good. He was poised and ran some good things,”Virginia head coach Pete Gillen said of Hand. “He didn’t make a good decision. You’re supposed to come off the screen like he had been doing for three or four in a row. He went the wrong way and he charged. He might have got hit on the way in, but he did run the guy over.”

Virginia (10-5, 1-2) ignored the loss and tied the game a minute later on Chris Williams’ 3-pointer. The Wolfpack called a timeout and went to Kenny Inge in the post, but he missed a shot. That’s when Wilkins redeemed himself, flying in for one of his five offensive rebounds. He reset the offense and Inge took a pass at the 3-point line, split two Cavalier defenders and slammed home a dunk for a 63-61 lead with 1:34 to play.

Then came the final chapter of the Wolfpack’s free-throw shooting woes. The always reliable Archie Miller made one and missed one for a three-point lead, then Virginia’s TravisWatson did the same to make it 64-62.

With 22.7 seconds left, N.C. State’s Marshall Williams missed his first attempt and made the second, and Virginia 3-point attempts by Adam Hall and Keith Friel missed the mark.

“Just for this one night, at least until midnight, the only stat that I’ll focus on is the final score,”Sendek said. “The silver lining is that even with that kind of free-throw shooting night … this team, as it has on a number of occasions this year — although perhaps not pretty — has had the resiliency and the grit to find a way to get over the hump.”

Sendek’s players know that grace period ended promptly at midnight, however.

“Coach Sendek definitely won’t forget it, no way he’ll let us forget it,”Wilkins said. “We’ll definitely shoot a lot more free throws in these upcoming days. We’ve just got to get better at it. That’s horrendous.”

There’s not too much extra theWolfpack can do. Players already shoot 100 free throws a day, every day, at the beginning of each practice, between classes — even outside if N.C. State’s old home court and current practice gym, Reynolds Coliseum, happens to be closed, Gainey said.

“We are working on free throws. We’re shooting a lot of them in practice, I promise you that,”said Sendek before challenging the media members at his postgame interview.

“You know what Ron Kelley made two days ago out of a hundred?Take a guess!”

Sendek’s answer of 95 out of 100 drew laughs considering Kelley’s 1-for-5 showing Wednesday.

“Now, I know I lost all credibility with you the rest of my career, but I’m telling you, our guys are consistently making in the 80s,”Sendek said.

He also quickly discounted the theory that his players aren’t hitting their free throws in games at the new arena because they practice almost exclusively at Reynolds while sharing the new building with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.

“Virginia had less than that (one day of practice) over here and they made 21 out of 29. It didn’t seem to adversely affect them,”Sendek said. “I don’t think we can go there.”