North Carolina State 71, Villanova 68: Trevor Lacey finished with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists as the eighth-seeded Wolfpack upset the top-seeded Wildcats in the third round of the NCAA Tournament in Pittsburgh.

Freshman Abdul-Malik Abu posted his second career double-double with 13 points and season-high tying 12 rebounds for North Carolina State (22-13), which won the battle of the glass 45-32 and meets Northern Iowa or Louisville in Syracuse, N.Y., in the Sweet 16 on Friday. Lennard Freeman added 11 points and 12 boards while Anthony Barber chipped in 13 points for the Wolfpack.

Darrun Hilliard II buried six 3-pointers en route to 27 points for Villanova (33-3), which saw its school-record 16-game winning streak come to an end. JayVaughn Pinkston contributed 13 points and Daniel Ochefu collected 11 boards, but Big East co-player of the year Ryan Arcidiacono tallied only four points on 2-of-8 shooting as the Wildcats shot 31.1 percent – their second-lowest mark of the season.

Caleb Martin converted a four-point play near the end of the first half to give N.C. State a 29-28 lead and BeeJay Anya blocked Ochefu at the rim with four seconds left, allowing Lacey to hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the break. Freeman completed the Wolfpack’s run of nine straight points less than a minute into the second half and Abu capped N.C. State’s 20-5 surge spanning both halves for a 45-33 edge on a layup with 13½ minutes remaining.

Villanova drew within three on a three-point play by Pinkston with 2:26 left, but Lacey stopped the surge with a pull-up jumper and Barber added a layup on the next possession to push the lead back to seven. Hilliard sandwiched consecutive 3-pointers around a free throw from Barber to cut the deficit to two with 44 seconds remaining, but the Wildcats missed their next two 3-point attempts before Hilliard made a 3-pointer with a second left and Ralston Turner ended it with a pair of free throws.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Villanova, which shot a season-high 63.2 percent in its second-round rout of Lafayette, has not advanced past the first weekend in five NCAA Tournament trips since a Final Four berth in 2009. … N.C. State recorded its third win against a No. 1 seed and first since knocking off two top seeds during its national championship run in 1983. … The Wildcats finished 9-of-28 beyond the arc, falling to 25-2 when draining at least seven 3-pointers.