RALEIGH. N.C. – The season may be only four games of age, but the feel in the Massachusetts men’s basketball team’s locker room – especially after its 69-62 win over North Carolina State Saturday in Raleigh – does not correspond to that infancy.

“Another win,” said fifth-year senior Kitwana Rhymer after his Minutemen worked their way to 4-0, already tying the amount of wins from last year’s 4-11 non-conference slide. “Tuesday we had our celebration with the first big win against Oregon.

“But now, we’re just like, ‘okay, we’re just going to keep pounding them out.'”

The streak though, is about to enter trying times. Because after Tuesday’s game at home versus Holy Cross, UMass – which moved to the top of the RPI chart last week due to its tough schedule – must travel to Chestnut Hill Saturday to scrap with No. 15 Boston College, with a Mullins Center date with UConn lurking just three days later.

Still, with the way the Minutemen have been playing, coach Steve Lappas may not be as nervous over the upcoming tough slate as he was when the schedule was first released.

“Did I think we would be 4-0, knowing what the games were? No,” said Lappas, after leading UMass to a 2-0 all-time mark against the Wolfpack. “I’m really proud of our guys – just the way they compete, the way they play. The get after it.”

Saturday’s game was rather similar to UMass’ first three. It began with vicious blocks from Rhymer, which sent an early message to the Wolfpack guards not to use the lane as a safety valve. It continued with patient play from the young backcourt (along with survival of a full-court press that State put on for most of the afternoon), hard defense, and solid contributions from the bench. As usual, it ended with a clutch play from Micah Brand – this time a baseline jumper from the junior on the Wolfpack’s Marcus Melvin with 1:13 left to put the game relatively out of reach at 60-54.

“It was straight one-on-one coverage the whole time,” said Brand, who also connected on key late minute hoops in both the Arkansas-Little Rock and Oregon games. “But instead of letting me back him down, he just tried to play off me, so I just hit a jumper on him.”

With 2:19 left to play, Shannon Crooks received the ball on the right wing, crossed up Clifford Crawford and broke clear to the basket – and with that lay-in, the senior extended the UMass lead to 58-50. Two UMass turnovers and two easy hoops for State’s Anthony Grundy though, brought the Wolfpack back into contention, but Brand’s jumper, and free throws from Crooks and sophomore Willie Jenkins in the final minute sealed the victory.

Crooks led the way for UMass with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Brand netted 14 points and sophomore Jenkins contributed 12.

UMass (48.1 percent) out-shot State (33.9) from the field and out-rebounded the Wolfpack 41-30, but could not pull away due to the full-court pressure, which caused 18 UMass turnovers – double the amount of its own follies. In turn, the Pack scored 17 points off turnovers, many of those coming in a key 11-4 run in the first eight minutes of the second half to take a 39-37 lead. But baskets by Rhymer, Raheim Lamb, and two free throws by Eric Williams – with Rhymer and his four fouls on the bench – gave UMass the last advantage.

“Everyone just kept their head,” said Brand, who also made a key block to end the Wolfpack’s early second half run. “And Eric played great. He got some rebounds, hit open shots, made good passes, played good defense – and that’s what has to happen. When one person gets in trouble we just have to compensate for it.

The Minutemen raced out to an early 14-7 lead, thanks to a one-handed Kyle Wilson runner from behind the arc with the shot clock winding down, but State tied the game up at 23-23 with 8:33 left in the first stanza on a Grundy three from the left arc. Grundy had a chance to give the Pack the lead going into the half, but his three-point miss in the final seconds turned into an Anthony Anderson put-back on the other end to give UMass the 31-28 advantage.

“You want your seniors to get you started, until the young kids get settled in,” Lappas said. “What happens, unfortunately, on the road a lot is the young kids – if they don’t settle in you don’t know what’s going to happen. But Shannon, Kit and Micah got us going, and everyone else just followed along.”