There are few NC State traditions that are as special as the Play4Kay game. Every year, thousands of Wolfpack fans fill Reynolds Coliseum clad in pink shirts to watch NC State women’s basketball — in custom pink uniforms of its own — and raise money for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. But rarely have the stakes been as high as this year’s matchup as No. 14 NC State hosted a Tobacco Road and conference rival, No. 10 Duke.

Undefeated in front of its home crowd this season, the Wolfpack (18-4, 10-1 ACC) looked nearly unstoppable in the first quarter, scoring 24 points on 71.4% shooting while holding the Blue Devils (17-5, 8-2 ACC) to just 17 points on 35.3% shooting. With a seven-point lead early, it looked as though NC State was in line for a statement blowout victory on such an important night.

But the Blue Devils were a top-10 team for a reason. In just the first two-and-a-half minutes in the second quarter, Duke made all six of its shots, shooting out on a 14-0 run and quickly putting the Wolfpack in a seven-point deficit. While the Blue Devils got hot, NC State scored just two points through the first eight minutes of the second quarter.

All of a sudden, the once-deafening cheers in Reynolds Coliseum quickly turned to halftime silence. The team that had looked nearly unbeatable in the first quarter scored just eight total points in the second and found itself 11 points behind on the most important night of the season.

Luckily for Wolfpack fans, NC State holds claim to one of the best scorers in the nation — senior guard Aziaha James. Now, James was coming off her worst performance of the season in a seven-point outing against Wake Forest, but when her team needed her most, the Wolfpack’s most trusted player stepped up.

“Duke and Carolina,” James said. “Them blues, they don’t sit right with me. I bring my all every time we play them. We just don’t like blues.”

Last year, James set a career-high against the Blue Devils with 33 points. But this year, she one-upped herself, scoring a new career-high 36 points and leading the Wolfpack to a come-from-behind 89-83 victory.

“Sometimes you just gotta get out of the way and let her go,” said head coach Wes Moore. “She’s got confidence and she makes things happen, which makes it easy on the old coach when you can just get out of the way and let them go.”

James scored 27 points in the second half while making 11 of her 13 shot attempts, spearheaded by nine-straight points in the fourth quarter to take back the lead that the Wolfpack had lost early in the second quarter. James played with an unbridled confidence every time she touched the ball, almost as if she knew it would go in before she had even shot it.

“She’s amazing, as you can see,” said sophomore guard Zoe Brooks. “She scores the ball in so many ways. You can’t guard her. It’s literally impossible. She can score from 3, pull up or go to the basket.”

Even more impressive was the fact that she put her career performance against the second-best defense in the ACC — a defense that typically allows just 59.5 points per game. But the Blue Devils had no answer for the Wooden Award hopeful.

“She makes tough shots,” said Duke head coach Kara Lawson. “She’s a talented scorer and when she gets going, it’s difficult. She did a good job of one-on-one, breaking down and getting to the rim.”

Though James was the driving force behind the comeback, NC State’s veteran players stepped up in a big way when Moore needed them most. Senior guard Saniya Rivers missed just 30 seconds of game time, scoring 13 points and playing primary defender for nearly the entire match. Brooks provided 15 points on 55% shooting, constantly delivering a clutch jumper when needed. And when the Wolfpack needed an energy boost, graduate guard Madison Hayes was there to provide, whether it was a full-court assist, a tough and-1 layup or simply a hype woman.

“They’re an excellent team,” Lawson said. “Very complete and obviously have a ton of experience. And I thought that experience showed itself late.”

But it wasn’t just the Wolfpack’s experience that gave it the edge. Moore subbed freshman center Lorena Awou into the game in perhaps the most perilous situation — a tight-knit fourth quarter. Moore discussed earlier in the season that younger players such as Awou would be thrown into the flames of the ACC, and no flames were hotter than these. But Awou responded in tremendous fashion, making all three of her shots — including two and-1 layups — to go along with three rebounds and a block, all in the fourth quarter.

“She did great tonight,” Brooks said. “I’m so happy for her. She put in a lot of work and she made a lot of progress since the summertime.”

Now, a top-10 win on Kay Yow night is cause for much celebration from Wolfpack fans, but Duke exposed key issues in NC State’s roster. The red-and-white was outrebounded, outassisted and blocked six times compared to the two it swatted. This is the first time all season the Wolfpack has won in such conditions but can’t rely on new career highs from James to bail it out every time, especially with its upcoming gauntlet of a schedule.

“I’m proud of what they did in January,” Moore said. “February is brutal. Five out of six games against ranked teams, three of them on the road and, oh boy, the two at home are Duke and Notre Dame. Two top-10 teams. Gotta look at the schedule, folks. Road games are tough every night in the ACC, but now you’re going to three ranked ones. We still got a whole lot of speed bumps ahead of us.”

Next up, the Wolfpack travels down to Tallahassee to take on No. 22 Florida State on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and will be streamed on The CW.