PITTSBURGH — On Wednesday, NC State basketball coach Kevin Keatts wasn't sure who would be available for Texas Tech in their first-round NCAA Tournament game.

By 10 p.m. Thursday, he knew the answer. The Red Raiders would have everyone at their disposal for March Madness. That set Keatts' plan into motion.

Warren Washington, Texas Tech's 7-foot starting center, had missed eight of the team's previous nine games with a foot injury. Between Feb. 12 and tip on Thursday, Washington had played 12 minutes, 34 seconds, in a span of 38 days.

The Wolfpack knew full well what they had to do when Washington checked in with 15:52 left in the first half.

"Absolutely," NC State forward Ben Middlebrooks said, "we were trying to kind of see what he could do, how much of a percent he was back. But honestly, really, we just had to focus on trying to get through our game plan."

ABOUT THE GAME: NC State basketball eliminates Texas Tech to advance in NCAA Tournament

Keatts admitted that the game plan was pretty simple: attack the paint.

The Wolfpack bigs of Middlebrooks, D.J. Burns, Jr. and Mohamed Diarra combined for 54 points as the Wolfpack ran away with an 80-67 win in PPG Paints Arena. NC State had four players reach double-digit scoring totals, while it took until the final minutes of a futile comeback attempt for Texas Tech (23-11) to get two.

"Thought we had an incredible size advantage," Keatts said. "When you look at D.J. Burnes and you look at the way Ben played, and then Mo, I thought those guys really delivered for us inside and did a lot of good things."

With Robert Jennings picking up two quick fouls in the first half, and Washington not being at his best, the Wolfpack (23-14) smelled blood and went for the kill.

NC State used a 10-0 run late in the first half to take control and opened things up as the Wolfpack shut off all lanes to the basket — also a byproduct of Washington.

"He's such a unique talent offensively," Keatts said of Washington, "so we sacrificed a little bit of giving up a few 3s because we wanted to go under all the ball screens so he didn't have the ability to rim run."

Texas Tech amplified NC State's defensive game plan by going 7-of-31 from 3-point range, a 22.6% clip that marked the team's worst outside shooting night since the first three games of the season.

Keatts pointed to the team's efforts on Pop Isaacs for Texas Tech's struggles from deep. As a whole, Isaacs was 1-of-10 from 3 and finished just 3-of-16 from the field overall.

"That's so much of a big part of their offense," Keatts said, "and we wanted to be there on the catch and take them away and I thought our guys did a good job guarding the 3-point line."

Washington knew he wasn't as effective as he wanted to be, just as he didn't want to have the injury to begin with. But he didn't make excuses — he still had six points and eight rebounds in 17:52 of playing time — for the game or how the Red Raiders season ended.

"This season has been filled with a lot of things I probably can't control," Washington said, "but at the end of the day, that happens. I can't complain, and I just gotta move on."

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: NC State basketball exploits weakness in convincing March Madness win