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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sidney Lowe's halftime message to leading scorer Tracy Smith was simple but effective: play harder.

Lowe didn't necessarily mean that Smith had to score more, although his two points on 1-for-4 shooting certainly didn't help as N.C. State fell behind 11 points to Marquette at halftime.

"I told him he wasn't playing hard enough," Lowe said. "Real simple, that's what I told him, he wasn't playing hard enough. But he can handle that."

Smith led a second-half surge by the Wolfpack, scoring 17 of his 19 points after halftime in a 77-73 victory over the Golden Eagles on Saturday.

"Coach told us we had to turn it up, just play hard," Smith said. "That's what we did in the second half."

Smith was 9 for 14 from the floor and had a team-high 11 rebounds.

Javier Gonzalez scored 15 and Dennis Horner added 13 for the Wolfpack (6-1), who shot 71.4 percent from the floor and went 4 for 4 from 3-point range in the second half to rebound from Tuesday's surprising loss to Northwestern.

Jimmy Butler scored 19 with 12 rebounds and Lazar Hayward added 15 points for Marquette (6-2).

The Golden Eagles couldn't rally with a late flurry of 3-pointers and were unable to continue their better-then-expected start to what is supposed to be a rebuilding year.

Marquette coach Buzz Williams roasted his team's defense afterward.

"Arguably, the worst we've been since I've been here in the second half," Williams said.

The Golden Eagles led 36-25 at halftime, but the Wolfpack held them scoreless for nearly four minutes on their way to an 16-4 run to take the lead on a 3-pointer by Julius Mays with 13:26 remaining.

"I thought they were really good and we were really, really bad," Williams said.

Marquette came back to take a 1-point lead, but the Wolfpack put together a 17-2 run that included a 3-pointer and three-point play by Gonzalez and a thundering dunk by Smith to put North Carolina State up 63-49 with 5:30 left.

"In the end, we didn't guard anybody," Butler said.

The Golden Eagles tried to rally with back-to-back 3-pointers by David Cubillan and Maurice Acker, but Josh Davis answered with a dunk to put the Wolfpack up by 10 with 3:58 remaining.

Hot second-half shooting helped the Wolfpack forget about the Northwestern loss.

"We just came off of a ballgame where we had good looks and we didn't shoot it well," Lowe said. "We were hoping, hoping that we were going to knock some of those down."

Farnold Degand scored six points in his first game for the Wolfpack this season. Lowe held Degand, a senior, out of the first six games because of academic reasons.

"He just needed to take care of a couple things," Lowe said. "As I said before, he was always eligible to play. But there were some things that I wanted him to take care of academically. He's done that and earned the right to play."

North Carolina State's Scott Wood went to the floor in a baseline collision early on, and was taken to the locker room with blood under his right eye. He left the game at the 15:51 mark of the first half and returned with 11:29 remaining. Wood finished the game with five points.

The Golden Eagles were without freshman Jeronne Maymon because of a hip injury, Williams said.

N.C. STATE (6-1) — Wood 2-5 0-0 5, T.Smith 9-14 1-3 19, Horner 4-8 4-6 13, Gonzalez 5-8 2-5 15, Williams 3-5 0-0 7, Howell 0-0 0-0 0, Painter 0-1 0-0 0, Degand 3-4 0-0 6, Davis 3-5 3-6 9, Mays 1-6 0-0 3. Totals 30-56 10-20 77.

MARQUETTE (6-2) — Hayward 6-16 2-2 15, Butler 6-14 5-6 19, Johnson-Odom 3-6 2-4 11, Cubillan 2-6 0-0 5, Buycks 2-10 3-4 7, Acker 3-7 2-2 10, Fulce 3-7 0-0 6. Totals 25-66 14-18 73.

Halftime—Marquette 36-25.
3-point goals—N.C. State 7-12 (Gonzalez 3-5, Horner 1-1, Williams 1-1, Mays 1-2, Wood 1-3), Marquette 9-22 (Johnson-Odom 3-4, Butler 2-3, Acker 2-4, Cubillan 1-4, Hayward 1-4, Buycks 0-3).
Fouled out—Johnson-Odom.
Rebounds—N.C. State 33 (T.Smith 11), Marquette 41 (Butler 12).
Assists—N.C. State 22 (Gonzalez 7), Marquette 17 (Acker 7).
Total fouls—N.C. State 16, Marquette 18.
A—15,803.