First-year head coach Wes Moore kicked off his tenure at N.C. State with a 70-47 win over St. Bonaventure Friday night at Reynolds Coliseum.
“This reminds me of the old Western, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” Moore said. “The first 10 minutes were bad. The next 20 minutes were where we did some good things, but the last 10 minutes got pretty ugly.”
Senior guard Myisha Goodwin-Coleman, senior forward Kody Burke and freshman guard Miah Spencer each scored 11 points as the Wolfpack (1-0) defeated the Bonnies (0-1).
“Kody Burke gave us a good lift initially to start the game,” Moore said. “Myisha Goodwin-Coleman can obviously shoot the ball, so we try to give her some open looks. Miah Spencer is a freshman we’re really excited about.”
Freshman forward Jennifer Mathurin led the team in rebounds with seven, also adding five points in 16 minutes off of the bench.
The Pack’s defense was suffocating early in the game, holding the Bonnies without a field goal for the first five minutes. St. Bonaventure eventually tied the score at seven apiece, but State hopped on a 25-8 run to separate itself. The Pack held onto its advantage, earning a 37-21 lead at the half.
“I said at halftime that we don’t pay attention to the score,” Moore said. “When we come out, it’s 0-0, so I was pleased with our energy. To be honest, until I checked the scoreboard at the second media timeout, I never noticed that they hadn’t scored.”
State’s defense held the Bonnies scoreless for the first nine minutes of the second half, enabling the Wolfpack’s offense to increase its lead to 37 points during the same stretch. The Pack led by as many as 40 points before St. Bonaventure turned the tide and ended the game on a 24-7 run.
Although its three-point shooting percentage wasn’t eye-popping, State’s deep shooting helped the Pack ease to victory on Friday night. Goodwin-Coleman and freshman guard Ashley Williams each had three three-pointers as the Pack combined to go 12-of-38. By comparison, St. Bonaventure made only one basket beyond the arc out of 11 attempts.
“We play a lot of inside-out offense,” Goodwin-Coleman said. “We go inside to create the outside shot. Every time we threw the ball inside, they would double up and our post players were able to get it out to the shooter to knock down the open shots.”
The Bonnies turned the ball over 22 times, which State turned into 25 points. However, the Pack committed 25 fouls against the Bonnies, including five from redshirt junior guard Len’Nique Brown. The Bonnies took advantage of the fouls, earning 20 of their points from the free throw line.
“We were fouling way too much, and that’s not a lot of fun to watch,” Moore said. “We want to be aggressive and dictate what the offense does, but in order to do that, we need to play defense with our feet and not our hands.”
State also shot well from the charity stripe, converting 12-14 shots at the line. Burke led N.C. State at the stripe, shooting a perfect 6-6 in her 100th career game.
“Coach Moore stresses free-throw shooting in practice,” Burke said. “He says that if we don’t hit at least 80 percent, then we’re running. That’s definitely motivating for us. Translating that mentality into the game has been very helpful.”
The Pack returns to action on Monday against Towson in the second of a six-game home stand. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m.
