Winners of 13 of its first 14 games, the N.C. State women’s basketball team was entering new frontiers heading into the ACC opener on Sunday against No. 20 Syracuse in Reynolds Coliseum. After a stirring come-from-behind victory against the Orange, the Pack should have a national ranking to show for its improvement.
N.C. State (14-1, 1-0 ACC) rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to defeat Syracuse (11-3, 0-1 ACC), 67-61. The Pack, who began last season’s conference slate by losing its first six games, won its conference opener for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
Senior forward Kody Burke led the Wolfpack on Sunday afternoon. The two-time Academic All-American shrugged off early foul trouble to finish with 19 points and five rebounds. Senior center Markeisha Gatling, the NCAA leader in field goal percentage entering the contest, added 14 points and 15 rebounds. It was her second double-double in the past three games.
Freshman guard Miah Spencer (12 points) and junior guard Krystal Barrett (10 points) also reached double-figures scoring for the Pack.
“I just couldn’t be prouder of these kids,” N.C. State head coach Wes Moore said. “It would have been so easy when you fall down by 10 points late, especially after the start a year ago in the conference, to just say ‘it is not our day’ and chalked it up. They just kept battling.”
The Pack got off to a good start and built an early seven-point lead, but the Orange was not deterred. Syracuse, who finished third in the Big East Conference and reached the NCAA Tournament last season, went 7-for-16 in the opening half from three-point range to take a 36-32 lead into intermission.
Syracuse used the first seven-plus minutes of the second half to build a 45-35 lead over the Pack. The Orange out-rebounded N.C. State, 42-35, and pulled down 11 offensive rebounds in the second half. With fewer than eight minutes remaining, State trailed by seven.
Flustered by N.C. State’s inability to score — the Pack had only 14 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half — and needing help with the Orange’s tenacious full-court zone defense that limited ball movement and interior passing, Moore sent in freshman guard Ashley Williams and State began its run to victory.
State took its first lead of the second half with 5:12 remaining when Williams fed Gatling for a basket to push the Pack ahead, 56-55.
Though Williams did not score and had only the one assist, Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman felt it was an impressive coaching maneuver that made a difference in the outcome.
“They [N.C. State] have a quality coach,” Hillsman said. “She [Williams] messes with the principles of the zone. She is not in the game to pass the ball much; she is in the game to shoot it. You have got to take two more steps to approach her. She stretched our forward out. He [Moore] did a very good job putting her in because he knew we had to worry about her.”
Syracuse sophomore guard Brianna Butler connected on a three-pointer to give the Orange its final lead at, 61-59, with 2:18 remaining. Those would be the visitor’s last points of the game.
State closed out the contest with eight straight points, beginning with an outlet pass from senior guard Myisha Goodwin-Coleman to Spencer, and the Pack never looked back.
A potentially ranked N.C. State team returns to action on Thursday with a trip to archrivals North Carolina at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill. Tip-off is set at 6 p.m.
