The Wolfpack women’s basketball team has enjoyed a phenomenal 2015 regular season, defeating arch rivals No. 22 Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill and tying for sixth in the ACC with a 19-10 (10-6 ACC) record. The Pack has to credit some of its success to its dynamic backcourt duo, junior guard Miah Spencer and redshirt junior guard Dominique Wilson, who were named to the All-ACC Second Team.
Hearing the announcement of the starting line-up from the stands, most fans would assume the two Georgia natives came from the same high school, or at least had played with each other before NC State, but the two had never met before. The duo knew of each other through the Amateur Athletic Union scene.
Both guards, Georgia natives and born one year apart, grew up playing basketball and sharing their love of the game with their older brothers.
Spencer described playing with her 4-year-older brother often. Wilson’s older brother later went on to play basketball for fellow-ACC school, Pittsburgh.
“I’m going to say me of course [when describing who’s better at basketball],” Wilson said. “I haven’t played him in a while, but last time I played him I beat him, so I think I’m going to stop playing him, just going to keep that land forever.”
Upon entering high school, the guards became standouts among their peers in both high school and AAU play, playing in higher age divisions. Wilson hit the 1,000-point mark as a junior, then led her team to a 4-AAAAAA state title her senior year at McEachern High School and a No. 2 National Ranking. In the meantime, Spencer led her team to two 3-A state titles both her junior and senior year.
Upon graduation, Wilson enrolled at Arkansas as member of the Razorbacks in 2012 where she averaged 6.6 points per game and racked up a 17-point game in a triumph over No. 8 Kentucky before transferring to NC State in 2013, just in time to meet up with Spencer as she enrolled her freshman year.
“When I first got here, I thought she was a really good guard; she can drive, she can shoot,” Wilson said. “I knew she was from Georgia, and in my opinion, everyone from Georgia is awesome, so I thought she was good.”
While Wilson sat on the bench as a redshirt freshman, Spencer entered the starting lineup late in the season and averaged 8.3 points, 2.6 assists and shot 44.9 percent from the field.
After many long practices and swishing baskets together in Dail Basketball Center, the two finally hit the court together on Nov. 14, 2014 against Tennessee State. Wilson and Spencer combined for 34 points solidifying the 84-55 win.
The two Georgia natives’ on-court chemistry has allowed the Pack to have much success in the backcourt.
“I just feel like we are both talented players, and we know basketball,” Spencer said. “We know the IQ of basketball, so if I’m driving to the basket, I know Dom is going to spot up or move in my vision so I can pass her the ball.”
Wilson added that their offensive versatility made scoring a more efficient task.
“We just read off of each other,” Wilson said. “We know both of us can drive, both of us can shoot. So we try to create for each other or we try to create for ourselves, but if one of us gets stuck or tries to trap us, we always look for the other because if I have two people on me, that means Miah is open.”
During the regular season, Wilson led the Pack in free-throw percentage and points, with Spencer following right behind.
The two both surpassed the 1,000 career-points mark this past January during their win over Virginia. The two combined finished the regular season registering 43 percent of both the Pack’s points and steals.
“It was a blessing,” Spencer said. “I didn’t even know we had got it on the same night until after the game. I didn’t know they were going to give us the ball at the end of the UNC game. That was incredible, just a blessing, but we can’t stop there, we got a lot more to go in the season and a lot more to go in our career.”
Wilson and Spencer are true testaments that there must be something in the water in Georgia. It’s obvious that these two guards are two Georgia peaches who have fallen from the same basketball tree.
