— NC State never trailed in the second half despite a late charge from Villanova. The Wolfpack took a 71-68 win over the No. 1 seed Wildcats to advance to the Sweet 16. NC State will face the winner of the Northern Iowa-Louisville game.

1:37 second; NC State 66, Villanova 59:

NC State answers the and-one as Desmond Lee makes a layup and the free throw. The Lee free throw puts the Pack up seven. Jayvaughn Pinkston hits a layup and Abu fouls him for his fourth foul, the free throw falls and Villanova trails by only three with just over two to play. Trevor Lacey hits a jumper to put a little more space between NC State and the Wildcats. The Wildcats turn it over and Cat Barber makes them pay.

3:51 second; NC State 59, Villanova 53:

A pair from Hilliard from the line cuts the NC State lead back to six with five minutes to play. A Josh Hart layup and foul on Ralston Turner gives the Wildcats a chance to cut it to five.

Darrun Hilliard drains a three to make it 54-48. Abdul-Malik Abu battled down low for several of his own rebounds before being fouled trying to put it in. The Wolfpack are leading Villanova 30-10 in the paint.

7:05 second; NC State 52, Villanova 45:

NC State is keeping a few possessions lead over Villanova as the second half progresses. The Wolfpack are getting in a little bit of foul trouble as four players have three fouls but Gottfried has not taken anyone out because of it.

11:32 second; NC State 47, Villanova 39:

After a slow start in to the second Villanova went on a 6-0 run to cut the NC State lead to six. Trevor Lacey answered with a jumper and will head to the line for a possible three-point play.

16:03 second; NC State 40, Villanova 33:

An Abu dunk put NC State up by 7 in the second half, Villanova has only one field goal in the second.

Halftime; NC State 32, Villanova 28:

Caleb Martin hit a three pointer and was fouled, the free throw was good to put NC State up 29-28 with just under two minutes to play. BeeJay Anya forced a turnover and Trevor Lacey drained a three at the buzzer to put the Pack up 32-28 at the half.

3:55 first; NC State 23, Villanova 23:

After a hot start NC State can't find the basket. The Wolfpack have only hit 1 of their last 7 shots and have let Villanova take the lead. Abu hit a jumper with five minutes to go to tie it back up at 21. Ryan Arcidiacono and Kyle Washington each added two for their teams to keep it tied at 23.

7:44 first; NC State 19, Villanova 17:

NC State grabbed a six point lead on Villanova before Dylan Ennis tied it up at 17. Des Lee came in and gave the Wolfpack four points off the bench.

12:06 first; NC State 11, Villanova 7:

A dunk in transition by Abdul-Malik Abu put NC State up 11-7 on Villanova and capped off a 7-0 Wolfpack run. Villanova hasn't hit a field goal in the past three minutes of play.

15:56 first; NC State 4, Villanova 3:

NC State holds a one point lead over Villanova at the first media timeout. Trevor Lacey and Lennard Freeman both have buckets for NC State, Villanova is 1-6 from the floor to start the game.

Usual starters for NC State as they take on Villanova, Ralston Turner, Cat Barber, Lennard Freeman, Abdul-Malik Abu and Trevor Lacey.

Pregame: After stunning LSU in Thursday's second round with a last-second win, the eighth-seeded North Carolina State Wolfpack will be looking for an upset Saturday night (7:10 p.m., TBS) against top-seeded Villanova at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.

NC State got a last-second shot from BeeJay Anya to fall through to give the Wolfpack a 66-65 come-from-behind victory over the Tigers. As a result, coach Mark Gottfried's club improved to 21-13 on the season and 36-24 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

It was also the fourth victory for the Pack in the last five games. NC State, which is appearing in its 26th Big Dance, has a pair of national titles to its credit (1974 and 1983).

The road to victory was much easier for Villanova in its first test of the tournament, as it routed fellow Keystone State school Lafayette on Thursday night, 93-52. The Wildcats, who captured both the Big East's regular-season and conference tournament titles for the first time in school history, have won a school-record 16 consecutive games and are an impressive 33-2 on the season.

VU is 51-34 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, and is seeking a return to grace 30 years after winning its lone national championship with a shocking win over Georgetown in the 1985 finale.

NC State owns a 12-10 lead in the all-time series with Villanova, but this is only the second meeting between the two since 1973. In 2008, the Wolfpack claimed their fourth straight win over the Wildcats with a 69-68 decision in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Florida.

Trailing LSU by double digits at halftime, NC State refused to quit and came storming all the way back to win thanks to a stellar defensive effort that limited the Tigers to 29.2 percent field goal efficiency over the final 20 minutes. The Wolfpack got 17 points from Anthony Barber, 13 from Abdul-Malik Abu, and 10 from former Tiger Ralston Turner.

Trevor Lacey, who leads the team on the season with more than 15 ppg, nearly joined them in double figures, as he finished with nine points to go with his team-high nine rebounds. NCSU went just 5-of-24 from 3-point range, and was outscored in the paint, 34-26. Both of those trends would need to turn around in a hurry if the team has any shot of upsetting the Wildcats.

Villanova led from start to finish in Thursday's clash with Lafayette, as each of the five starters and six players in all scored in double figures. Dylan Ennis paced the club with 16 points, while Daniel Ochefu came close to logging a double-double by netting 14 points and grabbing nine boards.

Ryan Arcidiacono hit for 13 points and dished out six assists, and he helped the Wildcats shoot a season-high 63.2 percent from the field, which included an 11-of-22 showing beyond the arc. Lafayette came into the contest as the more feared 3-point shooting team, but the Leopards were held to just 4-of-18 success out on the perimeter in a game in which they were severely overmatched.