No. 3 NC State women’s basketball held on late to take down No. 23 Virginia Tech, with the 68-66 victory crowning the Pack as the outright ACC champions.

Virginia Tech (21-8, 13-5 ACC) nearly capitalized on Wolfpack fatigue yet again, but NC State (27-3, 17-1 ACC) found a way to keep the big plays coming down the stretch. A massive performance from senior center Elissa Cunane spearheaded the Pack’s early offensive barrage in a game that was the Pack’s to lose after the first quarter.

With her 11 first-quarter points, Cunane established early on that things would look a little different in this matchup than the one between these two squads earlier in the year. In that relatively low-scoring matchup, Cunane was held to seven points on 2 of 16 from the floor by Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley, who has arguably become the conference’s best player.

Anytime these two teams have faced off in the past couple of seasons, the storyline always finds its way to the matchup between Cunane and Kitley, childhood best friends that have turned into two of the best players in the ACC. While their head-to-head earlier in the season was nothing more than a letdown, tonight’s performance was easily worth the price of entry.

Cunane finished the game leading the team with 22 points on 8 for 14 shooting and two rebounds, while Kitley led her side with 18 points on 7 for 9 from the floor, seven rebounds and an assist. Cunane’s lone 3-pointer also served as the Pack’s only make from deep on the night, with the team shooting 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.

“I’ve got as much confidence in Elissa Cunane as anybody on our team to knock down a three,” said head coach Wes Moore. “You got to let your players [play]. If they’ve got a talent and can do something, you got to let them use that talent. And again, she’s very effective inside, but I just think that makes her even more dangerous when you have to also account for her on the perimeter.”

The Pack started the game on a 10-1 run and never looked back, going on to hold the lead for all but one possession in the game. Graduate forward Kayla Jones was also an instrumental component to NC State’s early success, cashing in on all four of her attempts from the floor in the first quarter for eight points. 

Early foul trouble for Cunane would see her to the sideline for the majority of the second quarter, forcing the Pack to look for other options on the offensive end. Rather than one player stepping in to pick up where Cunane left off, NC State boasted six unique scorers in the period, with the junior duo of forward Jada Boyd and center Camille Hobby leading the way with four points apiece.

Despite the early foul trouble for NC State’s hottest hand persisting throughout the matchup, Hobby continued to establish herself as the Pack’s best option when Cunane couldn’t go. Even though she would only finish the game with her four points from the second and three rebounds, Hobby consistently found ways to put Kitley through the wringer when the Wolfpack was back on defense.

“I thought Camille did a great job when she was in there,” Moore said. “You know, last year, she started up here when Elisa was out with COVID and scored 19, so I had a lot of confidence in her as well.”

While it seemed that the Pack had an answer for mitigating the damage that Kitley is capable of at every turn, one player for the Hokies could only be stopped by herself. Virginia Tech’s Aisha Sheppard, the program’s all-time leading scorer and the titleholder for career 3 pointers in the ACC, was proving to be a handful for the Pack in the first half. Her 10 points through the first two quarters were second only to Kitley’s 15 and her pair of 3-point bombs were certainly a cause for concern for the red-and-white.

As it so often does, for even the greatest of shooters, her hand went cold later in the game, dropping only six points on 2 for 8 shooting from the floor in the second half. Regardless, Sheppard finished the contest with 16 points on 4 of 14 shooting, six rebounds and three assists, but one can only imagine how differently things could have played out if she had managed to keep her rhythm. 

There are always a number of things that can be attributed to the difference-maker in a two-point finish, but many have come to expect nothing less from these two teams each time they meet. The rivalry has solidified itself as one of the most tightly contested in the ACC, with NC State and Virginia Tech seeming to always have an answer for what the other has ready to throw at it.

“You know, Virginia Tech’s got a whole lot of talent, and they’re very, very well-coached,” Moore said. “We knew this was going to be a battle up here and every time we meet, it’s that way. We’ve got very similar teams, we both have talented post players, and then a lot of people around them that can shoot, although tonight it didn’t look like we could shoot. So again, give a lot of credit to them, their defense.”

At the end of the night, despite all the little things that may not have gone the way NC State had hoped, it rides home from Blacksburg, Virginia victorious in more ways than one. The game serves as a definition of a true team road win, with the Pack boasting eight unique scorers. While NC State only had three players amass more than 10 points in Cunane, Jones with 12 and Boyd with 11, the ability of the red-and-white to find answers on offense at every level proved to be the ultimate difference-maker.

All signs now point to Greensboro where the Pack will attempt to win the ACC Championship for the third year in a row. With tonight’s win, NC State has secured the one seed in the tournament, earning itself a double-bye. While the break will be much appreciated for the group of women who have fought so hard to make it to this point, it also brings about the challenge of facing off against an extremely talented team in the tournament’s first game.

“We always call the ACC part of the regular season a separate season,” Moore said. “Now we go into the ACC tournament, we start all over, you know, records don’t matter. You got to go back over there and re-earn it. So that’s what we’ll be trying to do and it’ll be a big challenge.”

NC State’s first game in the conference championship is scheduled for Friday, March 4 at 2 p.m. While its opponent is TBD based on the results of the tournament’s first two rounds, the Pack matches up well with just about anyone in the conference and will likely be foaming at the mouth to get its title run started. For updates on the women’s ACC tournament, and all things Wolfpack sports, make sure to follow @TechSports on Twitter.