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RALEIGH — Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. N.C. State, running in place again after what seems like years of trying to move forward, lost 92-78 to Duke on a Wednesday night when Sidney Lowe might’ve finally found something he can build on.

We’ll see.

After a long start to an important basketball season for the Wolfpack coach and his program, Lowe revamped his lineup, benched a couple of players and said it was time to move on without them. Admitting a sense of urgency, if not desperation, Lowe said it’s time for his team to start winning.

“We’re at that stage,” he said after the team’s third ACC loss in four games. “There are still a lot of games left, but we need a run. It’s not a panic situation, but too many of those and it will be.”

In the somewhat empty reaches of the RBC Center, it already is. This was supposed to be more than a rebuilding year for Lowe. This was the year his team finally played Duke and the rest of the conference on even terms, with talent and coaching experience and an indication to his fanbase that it was all headed in the right direction.

State is 11-7 and went into Wednesday’s game ranked 104th in the latest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). With 12 more ACC games before the tournament, including another at Duke and two against rival North Carolina, the Pack is either on the verge of finding itself or possibly rebuilding the program once again. With or without Lowe, the former Pack point guard who came here promising to return State to its former prominence.

closer now than it did when the heralded freshman class was assembled in the offseason, when the fanbase took notice and Lowe proclaimed his program was on the way back.

And it might be. But it hasn’t taken hold yet, and Lowe is still rotating players and lineups searching for combinations with a young team and a lot of moving parts. There’s still time, and the conference has no other teams like Duke. State can make a late-season run, but it has to happen soon if the fans are to be appeased.

Wednesday’s loss was a tough one. There was no booing. The loss seemed a foregone conclusion, which might’ve explained all the empty seats. But even in defeat, Lowe was confident he’d found something to build on.

That might mean he found something to build without, because he benched senior point guard Javier Gonzalez in favor of freshman Ryan Harrow, and he benched freshman Lorenzo Brown and moved shooter Scott Wood to the two-guard position. He said afterward it was not just to motivate them. He sounded as if he’d made a decision that will last the rest of the season.

“We going to play the guys who are playing,” Lowe said. “We’re going to reward the guys who are getting it done, reward the guys who are doing what I want them to do, who are capable of doing what I want them to do. And that’s what we did.”

He’d tried to base his lineups through the season on matchups and game plans. But he saw something he didn’t like Wednesday, saw something a lot of people have been yelling about all season. Gonzalez looked lost again, and Brown has looked lost almost all season.

That’s not saying the other freshmen have looked any better. For all the hype, C.J. Leslie has hardly been the freshman State fans thought they would see. He was erratic against Duke, too.

But something changed Wednesday at halftime, after the three freshmen combined to go 0-for-17 in the first half. Lowe decided to alter his team, putting a lineup on the floor he hadn’t used all season, with Harrow at the point, Wood at shooting guard and Leslie, power forward Richard Howell and center Tracy Smith inside.

“We have to really look at our team,” he told his players at halftime and repeated after the game. “Going forward, I’ve got to make some decisions. We’re going to put the guys out there who are getting it done for us. That’s the only way we can do it.”

Lowe didn’t sound like he would be using Gonzalez at point guard again. He sounded as though he’d grown tired of waiting for Brown to learn how to play in the ACC. He sounded as if the lineup was indicative of something deeper. Four conference games into his fifth ACC season, Lowe decided to change the makeup of his team and move on.

State probably wasn’t going to win this game, but Lowe came out of the loss with a new approach, and those watching seemed to give him the benefit of doubt. That might’ve been the most important thing that happened Wednesday night.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com