RALEIGH, N.C. -- Ilian Evtimov knows how important North Carolina State's final games will be in determining its postseason destination.
Judging by the Wolfpack's performance Wednesday night, his teammates knew it, too.
With the Wolfpack clinging to fleeting hopes to returning to the NCAA Tournament, Evtimov and Tony Bethel each scored 17 points to lift N.C. State to an 82-63 victory over No. 22 Maryland.
Julius Hodge added 13 points and nine assists for the Wolfpack (15-10, 5-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), who led by 20 points in the first half and held on for their first home win against Maryland in five years.
The victory gives the program its first regular-season sweep in the series since the 1988-89 season. But more importantly, it gives the Wolfpack confidence heading into a critical stretch of the schedule.
The Wolfpack started the season 10-1, then lost nine of 12 games to jeopardize their pursuit of a fourth straight NCAA bid. But with three of its final four games at home -- though two are against No. 4 North Carolina and No. 5 Wake Forest -- N.C. State is at least in position to make a run at correcting a season gone awry.
The Wolfpack knows they will need more efforts like the one against the Terrapins (15-8, 6-6), who were coming off an overtime win against No. 7 Duke.
"We're very confident," Evtimov said. "We also know that we don't have any room for error right now. If we want to have a postseason -- anything -- we've got to play hard and we've got to try to win every game we can. We've lost any kind of margin for error we've ever had."
N.C. State played unselfishly on offense, choosing crisp passing over 1-on-1 basketball to get open shots. The Wolfpack hit 13 3-pointers -- many coming on kickouts from the post or off penetration -- and finished with 22 assists on 25 field goals.
Evtimov hit five 3s, Bethel hit three and Cameron Bennerman and Engin Atsur each added two.
"We know we have some really good shooters and it's all about confidence," Hodge said. "The guys are really confident right now and making shots."
N.C. State even went 19-for-21 at the free throw line, where the team has shot just 69 percent this season.
"We played well offensively, moved the ball well and we were hitting on all cylinders," N.C. State coach Herb Sendek said.
Maryland coach Gary Williams did not sound quite so pleased with his own team, which had beaten the Blue Devils 99-92 in overtime over the weekend to earn its first sweep of Duke in a decade.
"I guess we were feeling pretty good about ourselves," Williams said. "I guess they made us pay for it. ... You have to use (the Duke win) as a springboard to the next game."
Nik Caner-Medley scored 17 of his 19 points in the first half to lead the Terps, but he got little help and didn't hit a field goal after halftime. John Gilchrist, who finished an assist shy of a triple-double against the Blue Devils, had seven points on 1-for-6 shooting.
After the game, raised voices were heard outside the Maryland locker room regarding the team's performance.
"Nobody was thinking about our last game," Caner-Medley said. "Everybody prepared for this game just like every other game. We didn't do all the things it took to win."
Maryland led 20-19 on Caner-Medley's 3-pointer from the right wing, but the Wolfpack answered with a 25-4 run to take its big lead. N.C. State got hot from the outside, hitting five 3s over the next five minutes.
Hodge assisted on two of those long-distance shots from Bethel and one from Evtimov, and found Cedric Simmons alone for a slam inside.
Little went right for the Terps during the run. They went scoreless for five minutes, couldn't stop the Wolfpack's shooters and Williams was called for a technical foul with his team trailing by 15.
Atsur closed the run with a 3 off a feed from Andrew Brackman inside, pushing the lead to 44-24 with 6:15 left before the break.
Maryland got as close as 63-56 midway through the second half, but the Wolfpack scored eight straight points. Hodge found Atsur alone on a cut to the basket for a layup, and Evtimov assisted on 3s from Bethel and Jordan Collins for a 71-56 lead with 3:39 to play.
It was the third straight game in which N.C. State built a 20-point lead on the Terrapins. Maryland erased a 21-point deficit to win in an ACC Tournament semifinal last season, and the Wolfpack led by as many as 28 points in an 85-69 road win last month.
