The No. 8 NC State women’s basketball team took down North Carolina Central 108-70 just one day after scheduling the in-state opponent.
The Wolfpack (2-0) was originally set to play Radford, but after a positive COVID-19 case within the Radford program, the game was canceled, and the Pack was forced to go searching for a new opponent for Sunday, eventually announcing it would host the NC Central Eagles (1-1) in place of Radford.
“NCAA is saying you’ve got to play 13 games to qualify for the NCAA Tournament,” said NC State head coach Wes Moore. “Hopefully, we go through our schedule without any hiccups, but you don’t want to leave games out there. You have to try and fill them. We are very appreciative of Central… We appreciate them on short notice, being able to make that happen. It is going to be very fluid this year. We are going to have to do that.”
Behind hot-handed second-half shooting, the Wolfpack put up its second-highest single-game field-goal percentage in program history, shooting 68.3% from the floor and falling just short of the record, 69.4% against Drake in 1990.
“They pressed quite a bit,” Moore said. “That allowed us to get out and get some numbers at times. Like I said, I thought we shot the ball pretty well, we just had too many turnovers. We got to clean that up. That is the thing about pressing. You may get some turnovers, and they did, but it also gave us some fast-break opportunities and some easy buckets. We took advantage of it for the most part.”
All five NC State starters scored in double digits, with graduate transfer guard Raina Perez joining the double-digit party off the bench. Junior center Elissa Cunane did the bulk of her work in the third quarter, scoring 13 of her 17 in the frame to help the Pack expand its lead further after a low-scoring second quarter.
While Cunane led the way with her 17 points, the Wolfpack’s four remaining starters, senior guard Kai Crutchfield (10 points, six assists), senior forward Kayla Jones (15 points, six rebounds, three assists), sophomore forward Jada Boyd (13 points) and sophomore wing Jakia Brown-Turner (13 points, four rebounds), all had solid games as well.
NC State started the game on fire, hitting eight of its first nine field goals before cooling off to a more reasonable, but still impressive, 12-for-18 to end the quarter up 21. Even more impressive was the Pack’s effectiveness from distance, hitting four of seven from 3-point land.
Both teams brought some full-court pressure during the opening quarter, and the Pack was able to benefit from both, getting some good looks after breaking the press and forcing a turnover out of the Eagles after they were unable to bring the ball up the court in time.
The Pack cooled off in the second quarter, following its 32-point opening frame with just 14 points, only outscoring the Eagles in the quarter by a single point.
After scoring just four in the Wolfpack’s opening game of the season, Perez showed why Moore was so excited to get her to Raleigh with a game-high 10 points in the first half on four-of-five shooting from the field. The former Cal State Fullerton Titan ended the game with 15 points, three rebounds and three assists.
“It is going to be hard replacing Ace, or not really replacing but filling in her spot,” Perez said. “Just getting used to the offense, the defense, just getting all of the jitters out in the first game really helped me. I’m just glad to play another game, honestly.”
Moore brought his starters back out to start the second half, and they went to work, building the Pack’s lead even more. After its lower-percentage second quarter, the Pack returned to its hot-handed ways in the third, shooting 86% from the field and scoring 39 in the frame.
While the usual suspects did the bulk of the scoring, Moore was able to give minutes to all of the freshmen. Redshirt freshman forward Elle Sutphin and true freshmen guards Genesis Bryant, Rebecca Demeke and Dontavia Waggoner all saw at least nine minutes of game time. Sutphin led the freshmen in scoring with nine points.
The game against the Eagles served as a final tuneup before the Wolfpack’s highly anticipated showdown with the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, South Carolina on Thursday, Dec. 3. Opening tip is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be viewed on ESPN2.
“I hope it’s a great game,” Moore said. “That is what I told them also. You come to NC State to play games like this. We sought out a game like this. We wanted to get tested. This is great preparation for our conference, which we are opening up conference play in, what, a week or two. We are playing three conference games before Christmas, which normally that doesn’t happen. So we needed a game like this. I’m sure any weaknesses or things that we have that we’re not doing well, we are going to get exposed Thursday night. It is a great challenge.”
