North Carolina State is continuing its Cinderella March run.

After five victories in five consecutive days capped off by a surprise win in the ACC Tournament, the 11th-seeded Wolfpack took down No. 5 seed Texas Tech, 80-67, on Thursday night in a South Region first-round NCAA Tournament game at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Four players scored in double figures, with forward Ben Middlebrooks leading with way for NC State with a team-high 21 points to go along with four rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

“We heard a lot about fatigue,” Middlebrooks said after the win. “It seems like we’re getting stronger every game we play.”

Middlebrooks, a 6-foot-10 forward, found plenty of room to work inside against the smaller Red Raiders.

“We completely played the game through our post,” Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts said. “We really went inside out and it worked out for us.”

The 6-foot-9, 275-pound Burns finished with 16 points.

Mo Diarra had 17 points and 12 rebounds for N.C. State, and DJ Horne also scored 16.

The Wolfpack, who dropped four straight games at the end of the regular season to play themselves off the tournament bubble, have now won six straight.

“When you’ve got transfers, people think it’s supposed to happen right away. We lost 34 points from our guards (from last year),” Keatts said. “It took a little time for us to get clicking on both ends of the floor.”

On Saturday, North Carolina will face No. 14 seed Oakland Grizzlies, who pulled off a huge upset over the third-seeded Kentucky Wildcats.

NC State led virtually wire-to-wire, rolling ahead with 43 second-half points in the victory.

— with AP