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RALEIGH — As promised, N.C. State debuted its double-point-guard backcourt Thursday night. No surprise there.

Who those guards were, on the other hand, was a bit of a shocker.

Sophomore Julius Mays shot 10-for-11 from the foul line and finished with 16 points, and junior Javier Gonzalez had eight points, eight rebounds and eight assists as the Wolfpack defeated Georgia State 69-53 in the half-filled RBC Center on Thursday night.

Up front, Tracy Smith scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for N.C. State (1-0). Dennis Horner scored 11 of his 15 in the first half when the Wolfpack took a tenuous 32-29 lead on pesky Georgia State (0-1).

Preseason plans called for Mays and Gonzalez to spell one another, playing opposite senior Farnold Degand in N.C. State's new uptempo offense. That plan blew up off the basketball court this week.

"I wasn't pleased with Farnold's effort academically," N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe said. "He's eligible. That's not the problem. But I have rules academically for this ballclub, and if guys don't meet them, then they can't play. That's just the way it is. All of them know it, and he understood it. Now we'll see when he gets himself back and ready to go. Until I'm satisfied with that, then he won't play."

Degand watched the game in street clothes. Lowe said his projected starter at the two-guard has been practicing with the team, but even that could be in jeopardy.

"He might (practice)," Lowe said. "I haven't decided yet."

Scott Wood, a 6-foot-7 freshman, started in place of Degand and finished with eight points in 30 minutes in his first collegiate game.

But the Pack was at its best with Gonzalez and Mays in the game together in the second half.

Clinging to a 45-41 lead, Gonzalez hit a 3-pointer with 9:56 left. That started a 20-6 scoring run over the next 7:40 as N.C. State pulled away. Mays finished the run with a jumper that pushed the lead to 18 points.

Mays scored 14 of his points in the second half and eight during the decisive run.

"Julius was outstanding," Lowe said. "Both he and Javi were put in a situation where they had to play together tonight. Julius didn't ask to come out until he was about to shoot that last free throw. He did not want to come out of the game. He knew we needed him to be in there to finish. That's who he is. That's how tough he is."

Smith was pretty tough, too. He sat out the last seven minutes of the first half in foul trouble, then scored 10 points in the second half.

Smith, a 59 percent free-throw shooter last season, shot 10-for-12 from the foul line in the opener.

"I work on my free throws every day after practice," said Smith, who figures teams will foul him plenty this winter. "I always stay an extra 10 or 15 minutes just to work on my free throws."

Smith got some extra incentive from a former teammate. Georgia State point guard Marques Johnson transferred to the Panthers from N.C. State, but not before he and Smith played together for one season.

"We've been talking junk back and forth on Facebook, on the phone, all the time," Smith said. " ... I was telling Marques, 'Yo, ain't nobody on your team can stop me.' Then one time he was like, 'Make your free throws; I know you can't do that.' Then I was like, 'I been working them.' I stepped up to the line (the first time), knocked both my free throws down, and after that I talked a little junk to him the rest of the game and he didn't say anything else."

Johnson finished with just two points on 1-for-4 shooting. There was nothing else to say.

NOTES: Johnny Thomas, a redshirt sophomore forward who graduated from Greensboro Day School, did not play. ... N.C. State has won 16 season openers in a row. ... Power forward Richard Howell, a highly touted freshman from Georgia, did not play because he is still recovering from an early October knee surgery.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com