#3 seed NC State held on last night, defeating #6 seed Tennessee 79-72 in Reynolds Coliseum to advance to the Sweet 16 for the 5th time in the last 6 tournaments.
The Wolfpack led by only 1 after the 1st Quarter, but they looked like they had things under control at halftime, leading by 18 points.
At one point, NC State led by as much as 20 points in the 3rd Quarter, but the Lady Volunteers weren’t about to give up.
With 4:19 left in the 4th, Tennessee cut the lead to 2 points, but NC State might have bent, but they wouldn’t break.
Junior Guard Aziaha James led the way with 22 points and 7 assists, which were both team highs. She scored 7 points in the final 3.5 minutes, helping to squash tue Last Vols’ comeback attempt.
Junior Guard Saniya Rivers had 20 points (6-14 FG) and 6 boards.
Freshman Zoe Brooks was clutch off the bench, chipping in 16 points and 6 boards.
This marks the 16th time the NC State Women’s Basketball team has advanced to the Sweet 16.
The Wolfpack will play #2 seed Stanford on Friday night at 7:30pm on ESPN in Portland.
I don’t get it. The Pack fandom is losing their mind over this one. We were the underdog to a team that I think is very good, and will do well post seasonWe were on the road – always tough in the ACCWe were missing a starterAny of those factors made this a tough one, all three made it really, really tough. And we had a shot. Seems like the reaction should be more like the Kansas game. We had a shot to beat a pretty good team on their home court, but didn’t. I still think the Pitt loss… Read more »
Steven Muma of BackingthePack didn’t just lead the way; he was inciting the riot of Keatts’ haters. I’m with you. This was a very tough road game where we once again played hard and covered the spread. Sure I am disappointed that we lost a lead but, without Mahorcic and only 7 minutes from Clark, what did they expect? Our lack of depth is an obvious weakness. I do agree with those who think we should at least install and practice a zone defense for just such situations.
I don’t feel this game is indicative of a losing season or anything. It feels like Smith is trending toward a smarter approach to his game albeit some headscratchers but… can’t argue with 7 assists and 2 turnovers. And man, Joiner continues to amaze me. He plays smart and I’m glad he’s on our team because I think Smith will benefit immensely and feed off him and learn from him. I also liked quite a bit what I saw with our rotation of bigs, especially DJ Burns. What it came down to is we succumbed the Freaky Friday of games,… Read more »
Great point about our depth. You are right, we were down one starter and got very limited minutes from Clark. So we played 3/4 of the game with only 3 starters. If you look at the team stats, we basically shot about the same percentage, slightly better from 3PT. We rebounded them evenly until late in the game when Burns ran out of gas. (34-38) Most games we’d be happy with 8 turnovers. One glaring problem is FT shooting at 58% which is not a team or coaching problem. And if everything else stayed the same and we shot 100%… Read more »
Ugh! That’s all I got.