While students were away from campus, the No. 4 NC State women’s basketball team continued to roll through its schedule. Let’s take a look at how the team fared over the winter break.
Pack dominating conference play
Ever since the disappointing loss to No. 17 Georgia, the Pack has been a different beast, holding Virginia, Clemson and No. 21 North Carolina to just 152 combined points. Though Virginia and Clemson are the two worst teams in the ACC, North Carolina is a ranked team and is coincidentally the team the Pack fared best against in terms of raw shooting numbers.
In those three games, NC State held opposing teams to 32% shooting from the field (58 of 181). That’s unheard of. As it ran UNC out of the gym, NC State held the Tar Heels to a measly 23.1% clip from the floor. In that stretch of games, NC State forced 60 total turnovers and the team recorded 42 stocks. Having junior forward Jada Boyd fully healthy has helped, and she recorded six stocks in those games.
NC State let Miami score a bit more in its most recent win, going up against a pressuring Hurricane defense that outrebounded the Pack. Head coach Wes Moore was quick to assess the team’s weaknesses, particularly wanting to tighten up on rebounds (more on that later).
Regardless, the Pack’s current conference schedule is encouraging, to say the least, especially against a then-undefeated UNC team that has been a thorn in the side of the last few iterations of the Wolfpack.
Bench players having moments
All year long, the talk of the town has been how deep this Wolfpack team is. Plenty of the Pack’s recent games have put that on full display. Look no further than NC State’s outing against UNC in which it recorded 23 bench points compared to Chapel Hill’s eight. While the Pack’s bench production is due in large part to sophomore guard Diamond Johnson, who averages 12.6 points per game, NC State is getting some solid individual performances from its second unit.
Against Clemson, the Wolfpack got 11 points and four boards from sophomore guard Madison Hayes. The Pack got 10 points from junior center Camille Hobby against Virginia and more recently, nine crucial bench points from the center against Miami. Hobby is usually the least-utilized player in Moore’s eight-woman rotation; she tends to play in ranked matches and similarly competitive games.
Despite the fact Moore does shorten his rotation and players like Hayes or freshman guard Aziaha James won’t get these opportunities often, it’s incredibly encouraging he has those players as fall-back options, especially considering those players are better than most programs’ starting units.
Team still has issues to sort out
Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows over the break. Coach Moore is never one to be satisfied with how things are going, even if his teams are blowing out the opposition, and it’s part of what has put the Pack in prime position to contend in the ACC and for a national title.
In the team’s first loss of the season, to powerhouse No. 1 South Carolina, the Wolfpack fell behind early and had to battle back into the game late. While it wasn’t to the same extent, the Pack found itself facing a 20-8 scoring deficit in the second quarter of its loss to Georgia and was forced to claw its way back in before falling in a disappointing fashion.
And despite outscoring Clemson by 24, Moore quickly and bluntly said he was disappointed in the way his team didn’t completely close a Tiger team out that was missing some of its best players. He’s got a point. The Pack is a quarter-by-quarter team at times — something it tightened up against teams like UNC, but is still an overarching theme.
It’s easy to tell after the Pack’s loss to Georgia in which the team was narrowly outrebounded, that Moore emphasized rebounding, especially when you consider the fact that the Pack outrebounded the Tar Heels 53-40. Those kinds of improvements are going to be key as NC State once again picks up with ranked opponents later this month.
Elissa Cunane’s professional optics
The WNBA recently held its draft lottery, with the Washington Mystics surprising all and jumping the lowly Indiana Fever to get the first overall selection. This year’s draft class looks to be especially loaded in tandem with one of the best free-agent classes of all time. So where does that leave senior center Elissa Cunane?
In ESPN’s most recent mock draft, Cunane was mocked to the New York Liberty at fifth overall behind the likes of Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard and Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith. Another mock has Cunane at eight, behind Georgia Tech forward Lorela Cubaj, who has given the Pack problems in the past. Winsidr’s Adam Miller has Cunane going seventh overall.
It’s clear that the Wolfpack’s best player is safely in the first round but it remains to be seen if she’ll be able to boost her stock. With upcoming challenges against No. 15 Georgia Tech and No. 16 Duke on the way, Cunane will have no shortage of opportunities to do so.
