Wake (19-14) beat New Mexico 72-65 in a second-round NIT game on Tuesday night because it had a little character, a little moxie and a little resilience. All those little difference-makers it didn’t have in January and February. All those little things that put the talented Deacons in this second-tier tournament instead of the NCAA party.

“If there was something good that came out of tonight,” sighed Deacon coach Dave Odom after his team survived a near-fatal drought in the second half, “it was that we showed a little of the toughness that we didn’t necessarily have during the regular season.”

Wake, which has won two NIT games for the first time, will take on California, a 60-49 winner over Georgetown, in the third round in Greensboro on Thursday night.

Wake totally dominated the first half. Dominated it inside with a staggering 32-11 rebounding edge at intermission. Dominated it outside with a defensive effort that allowed only one successful 3-pointer. It was 43-30 at the break.

But Wake saw the bulge it had toiled so hard to build go up in smoke in one four-minute stretch in which the Lobos (18-15) outscored it 13-0 to turn a 50-37 Deacon drumming into a 50-50 dogfight.

And when the score was evened at 50-50, Wake’s odds of winning appeared considerably worse than 50-50.

With 11:48 left in the game, though, Odom yanked his team out of its standard man-to-man and went to a zone.

“New Mexico was showing no respect at that point for our man-to-man,” said Odom. “You hate to give in, but we had to give them something different to look at.”

That move made the difference. Three minutes later, after a 10-2 spurt, Wake was back up 60-52 and maintained control the rest of the way. Rafael Vidaurreta’s putback broke the 50-all tie and triggered the decisive burst.

“Our guys answered the call,” said Odom. “Sometimes this season, we haven’t played with confidence in adverse situations and sometimes our fans haven’t stayed with us. But tonight the fans were there all the way and our guys absorbed a huge run and spurted right back.”

Wake won despite shooting 41 percent from the floor and a miserable 3-for-14 on 3-pointers. The primary culprits were Robert O’Kelley (3-for-12) and Josh Howard (4-for-15).

The heroes were Craig Dawson, who jumped off the bench to make five straight shots and big men Darius Songaila and Rafael Vidaurreta, who had their way underneath, combining for 21 points and 23 rebounds.

“We were much bigger than them,” said Songaila, who paced the Deacs to a 50-35 edge on the backboards. “We should have gotten all the rebounds.”

“People who had seen Wake warned me they were the most physical team in the ACC,” said Lobo coach Fran Fraschilla, “and they right.”

Senior Lamont Long poured in 29 points in his final game for the Lobos, with 23 of them coming in the second half. Most came from “Long” distance. Reserve Marlon Palmer scored 14 and kept the Lobos withing hailing distance until Long cranked up.

The bottom line, though, was that New Mexico, while nearly unbeatable in its underground home facility known as “The Pit,” was the pits in this trip east. The Lobos, who have been in a postseason tourney 14 of the last 15 years, shot just 36 percent. That won’t often get it done on the road.

The Deacs, understandably, were happy to accept all the help they could get. With N.C. State, Duke and North Carolina all still alive in the postseason, they had little interest in being left behind.