After losing its first game in ACC play to Clemson by only two points, the N.C. State women’s basketball team, 9-7 (1-1 in ACC), needed a big win against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, 9-8 (0-1 in ACC) and it got just what it needed as it easily defeated the Deacons 80-59 Monday night in Reynold’s Coliseum.
“I am proud of our kids. I thought we were poised on the offensive end and thought that was one of our better defensive performances as of late,” coach Kellie Harper said. “We showed some toughness and that is an area we have been working on in practice. Wake Forest is always a tough matchup for us so I am really proud of our kids coming out and playing hard today.”
After the tough loss to the Tigers, freshman forward Kody Burke believed a renewed focus on the finer points of the game is what led to the teams blow out victory.
“It is important to take it one game at a time and focus on the little things you need to do because in the end the little things are what count and what allows you to win games,” Burke said.
Redshirt senior point guard Amber White led the way for the Pack leading all scorers on both teams with 22 points. Most of White’s points game inside the paint as she was able to drive into the lane with ease throughout the game. White said her performance was due to her regaining her confidence.
“I didn’t like my performance last game against Clemson,” White said. “I didn’t shot particularly well and just getting my confidence back and finding a consistent shot was key tonight.”
Turnovers played a huge part in the game as the Pack capitalized Wake’s sloppy play scoring 20 points off of 19 Deacon turnovers.
“That [capitalizing on turnovers] is something I don’t think we have been great at all season,” Harper said. “So us being able to capitalize on other people’s turnovers and mistakes is a huge plus for us. We have talked about taking advantage of our opponent’s mistakes quite a bit and we did that tonight.”
The Wolfpack was plagued by early turnovers and missed the first six three-point shots it took, but White and freshman forward Kody Burke got the Pack on track. Burke started off in the first half with nine points and three rebounds for State, which led all players. She finished the game with 15 points.
Usually active sophomore forward Marissa Kastanek, struggled with foul trouble, leading her to play only two minutes in the first half. But the Pack was able to cope with her loss and other players such as Burke and freshman guard Devin Griffin stepped up in her absence.
“We had a lot of different people step up,” Harper said. “I obviously don’t like Marissa sitting on the bench that long with two fouls but a lot of different players stepped up. Amber had a nice game and Kody played well.”
The women’s team seemed to follow the trend the men’s team set Saturday against Wake Forest as it dominated the Deacons down low. Leading that charge was Burke and junior Bonae Holston. The two forwards helped to lead the charge down low as State outscored the Deacons 36-20 in the paint, while out rebounding them 41-30.
The Pack took a 36-25 lead into the half. White then took control of the game early in the second half scoring a quick four of the team’s six points to stretch the Pack’s lead to 42-29. From there it was all N.C. State, as the Deacons never got the deficit back down into single digits.
With just six minutes remaining in the game the Pack stretched its lead to 20 points when senior forward Brittany Strachan drained a three from the corner, basically driving the nail in the coffin for the Deacons and securing the Pack’s first ACC win of the season.
