On a day when the University and basketball program honored former women’s basketball head coach Kay Yow and those who have battled with breast cancer, N.C. State fell to Georgia Tech Sunday afternoon in the 18th annual Hoops 4 Hope game.
The team sported white jerseys with pink trim and lettering in honor of those who have suffered from the disease. Fans were given pink shirts and balloons to join the University’s tribute.
“Hope,” ”Courage” and “Faith” were on the back of State’s jerseys rather than last names. The team echoed those inspirations by showing fight, like the women honored, rallying twice in the contest.
“I’m disappointed, obviously, with the outcome of the game,” head coach Kellie Harper said. “It was such a great atmosphere and a great crowd. You hate to walk out of here with a loss.”
The team previously defeated the Yellow Jackets, 78-66, Jan. 27 on the road.
“They were just a little bit sharper, defensively,” Harper said. “They didn’t make the mental mistakes they made in Atlanta.”
Plagued all game by the full-court press, State trailed by as many as 18 points in the first half, but rallied and took the lead, 34-32, headed into half time. The team held the Jackets to eight points in the last 12 minutes of the first half.
“Our defense was strong during that stretch. That was our strongest stretch defensively,” head coach Kellie Harper said.
In almost a mirror image of the first half, the team suffered getting the ball up the court due to the press from the Jackets, giving up the lead, which it never reclaimed.
It didn’t give up without a fight, but couldn’t contain Georgia Tech’s quick, fast break offense. State gave up 14 of the Jacket’s 21 fast break points in the second half.
In the end, the Pack couldn’t contain the Jackets, falling 79-70. The team’s record in the “pink game” is now 4-4.
Junior guard Myisha Goodwin-Coleman was essential in the Pack’s rally, scoring 13 of her career high 30 points in the first half off the bench.
“She’s the type of kid who can make three or four in a row,” Harper said. “When she gets hot she can put the ball in the hole.”
Goodwin-Coleman’s 30 points was the first time a player has reached that mark since Amber White scored 33 Feb. 27, 2011 against Wake Forest. Her nine three-point baskets in a game tied former player Jennifer Howard. Howard posted the record twice, Dec. 29, 1995 and Nov. 28, 1996, both against Syracuse.
“I just felt like I had the hot [hand] my teammates got me the ball,” Goodwin-Coleman said. “It’s great, but I wish I could have hit three more and tie the game, and go into overtime.”
The team will be back in action as it takes on Miami at Reynolds Coliseum Thursday night at 7 p.m.
“We just have to pick our heads up and go win one,” senior guard Marissa Kastanek said. “We can’t let this snowball.”
