Despite a poor start, the NC State women’s basketball team used a huge fourth quarter to halt its two-game losing streak and beat the Boston College Eagles 74-63 at Broughton High School Thursday.
The Wolfpack (17-8 8-4 ACC) scored 24 fourth quarter points to beat the Eagles (13-11 1-10 ACC).
“Rough start, maybe a little bit of a hangover from our road trips last week,” head coach Wes Moore said. “Our kids hung in there, I’m proud of the way they fought back.”
Junior guard Miah Spencer lead the Pack in scoring with 20 points, junior guard Dominique Wilson joined her with 14 of her own. Junior guard Kelly Hughes and freshman center Mariella Fasoula lead Boston College with 21 and 19 respectively. The Pack won despite being outrebounded 34-31 and outshot 46 percent to 45 percent. The team did win the turnover battle by a large margin 17-6. Sophomore guard Chelsea Nelson had her first career double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
“Honestly I was just thinking of us getting the win,” Nelson said. “Whenever they gave me the ball, I was just thinking score. It’s always going to be a mismatch, and I knew my ability to drive, that’s what they told me to do and that’s what I did.”
“She’s just so explosive,” Moore said of Nelson. “She can make things happen, defensively, on the boards, attacking the rim. I thought she gave us a big lift tonight, made some big plays for us offensively.”
The game was all Eagles for the first three minutes and change, with Boston College scoring the game’s first 10 points. The Pack showed some very poor shot selection as it was not able to get much going offensively, and played very passive defense in the first few minutes. The team did not fare much better the rest of the quarter, facing a 20-10 deficit at the break.
“We weren’t doing the little things,” freshman guard Camille Anderson said. “It wasn’t like we weren’t doing the big things, it was just little things like boxing out. We had to just focus on those things so we could pull away and win.”
Anderson hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second quarter to cut the lead to three. It seemed to galvanize the Pack, sparking a 14-0 run over a span of 3:22 to put the Pack up 29-25 with two minutes left in the half.
“I don’t know if we’d have won this game without [Anderson],” Moore said. “She came in and hit 3 shots, two big threes that got us back in the game.”
Boston College managed to stop the bleeding over the final two minutes, ending the half on a 6-0 run for a 31-29 lead heading to the locker room.
State opened the first five minutes of the third quarter with a 10-9 run to trim its deficit to one. Then with 2:57 to play in the quarter, a layup and free throw by Spencer gave State a two-point lead.
Following the free throw that gave the Wolfpack its first lead of the quarter, the teams pretty much alternated scores the rest of the way until the Eagles hit a layup and free throw for a one-point lead with four seconds left in the quarter. Boston College would hold the lead into break, as Spencer appeared to give the Pack a lead at the buzzer, but the basket was waved off by the officials.
The Pack played its best basketball in the fourth quarter, outscoring Boston College 24-12 and immediately taking the lead to start the fourth courtesy of a jumper by Wilson. State opened the first two-and-a-half minutes of the quarter on a 7-2 run to take a four-point lead. A jumper by Nelson with 4:18 to play gave the Pack a seven-point lead, but BC countered on its next possession to keep it within five.
Nelson was fouled with just under two minutes to play and missed both free throws; however, Boston College came up empty on its next two possessions and a layup and jumper by Spencer pushed the Pack lead to nine with a minute and change to play. State was able to hit its free throws over the final minute, giving it the final margin of 74-63.
“We were hitting some shots, we did a good job of attacking,” Moore said of the team’s fourth quarter. “We got some stops, we did a good job on the boards, it seemed like they were only getting one look.”
Next up is the team’s annual “Hoops For Hope” game at home Sunday against the Syracuse Orange.
Junior gaurd Ashley Williams sprints down the court. NC State womens basketball beat Boston college 74-63 on February 12th at Broughton High School.
