Women's Basketball
NC State WBB Runs Away with 79-58 Win in 1st Round of NCAA Tournament
This is the kind of game that ends up being great to start a NCAA Tournament. While the first 12 minutes were less than perfect, State ended up pulling out a 79-58 win against #16 seed NC A&T.
Slow Start By Pack
With 4:01 remaining in the 2nd quarter, State found themselves down by 6. But even that was a little deceptive. NC A&T has a stellar defense (their most points against this year was 66), but their offense was on another level early. At one point, NC A&T were hitting 60% from three-point land and 64% overall (they still ended the game at 43%, which is above their average 40%). Add that to a tight, aggressive defense, that was even bear-hugging Cunane inside, and the Aggies were off to a hot start.
Underrated Impact of Crutchfield
When in doubt, Crutchfield came up huge on both ends of the floor. To keep pace with NC A&T early, she was hitting three’s (ending the game going 4-5 from downtown). On the other side, she shutdown Aggie’s top player Deja Winters. In her last four games, Winters was averaging nearly 20 per. Today, Crutchfield held her to TWO points on 0-9 shooting from the field.
Bench Players were Hot
Outside of Brown-Turner’s terrific day (Double-Double, 10 points and 10 rebounds), Boyd was the best State player on the court. Boyd finished with 18 points, 5 boards, and 2 steals. Freshman Bryant came in for 9 points and Hobby for 4 points of her own.
Big Second Half without Cunane and Jones
State’s biggest run was 14 minutes in length and a 37-7 point swing. Crazy part? It was heavily done without Cunane or Jones on the floor. Jones left early with an injury sustained on a defensive play. Cunane got her 12 points and 5 boards and then was seemingly saved as the team was rolling. In total, Jones and Cunane played a combined 36 minutes. In all, 13 different Wolfpack players got playing time and still pulled out a 21-point victory.
State will now await to see whether they face #8 South Florida (AAC Champion) or #9 Washington St on Tuesday.
The NC State women were a 7 seed, picked to move on over 10-seeded Princeton, but that’s not how it worked out.
The Pack women were plagued by turnovers (20) and Princeton capitalized with a late 3 to clinch the win. Highlight above.
Sad day for NC State all around.
The NC State Women’s Basketball (16-5) team moved up 5 spots in the Week 13 AP Poll, after defeating Notre Dame 69-65 yesterday, who was ranked 7th then, and ranked 9th now.
(ESPN)
ACC Teams in the Week 13 AP Poll
9. Notre Dame
11. UNC
13. Virginia Tech
15. NC State
16. Duke
23. FSU
The Wolfpack’s next game will be on Thursday night on the road at Georgia Tech at 8pm on ACC Network.
#20 NC State picked up a much needed win last night against Miami, defeating the Hurricanes 71-61 in PNC Arena, avoiding a 3-game skid.
Sophomore Guard Saniya Rivers led the pack with 14 points, 6 steals, 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
As long as she keeps working, @PackWomensBball Saniya Rivers ( @Ihoop___22 ) is going to be a really fun @wnba player to cover in a few years.
(Until then, I’ll enjoy watching her, @haileyvanlith , NC State & @LouisvilleWBB on ABC Sunday at 1pm et.)— Rebecca Lobo (@RebeccaLobo) January 19, 2023
Seniors Camille Hobby and Mimi Collins both had 11 points.
Sophomore Guard Aziaha James had 10 points, and led the Pack with 6 rebounds.
The Wolfpack was without Jada Boyd and Jessica Timmons last night, and River Baldwin went down with an injury, and will have an MRI tomorrow.
NC State is now 14-5 overall, and 4-4 in ACC play, and will play at Louisville on Sunday at 1pm on ABC.