CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — How does that sports cliche go? You can’t win the game in one quarter but you can lose one.
That certainly seemed the case in No. 10 NC State women’s basketball’s 66-65 loss to No. 12 UNC-Chapel Hill Sunday evening at Carmichael Arena. In the second quarter of the top 15 bout, the Tar Heels suffocated the Wolfpack’s offense, holding the visitors to a season-low four points while scoring 18 of their own.
While the Wolfpack only trailed by seven points after its poor quarter, it halted all of the Pack’s momentum after taking a 19-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. Now, the Wolfpack had to play from behind most of the game against the ACC’s best defense.
“I thought Carolina really got after us on the defensive end, and that’s why we did struggle at times,” said head coach Wes Moore. “Second quarter, we really struggled.”
In that second quarter, NC State (20-5, 12-2 ACC) shot just 2-15 from the field and senior guard Saniya Rivers scored all four points while shooting 2-9. The Wolfpack also turned the ball over seven times, leading to six Tar Heel (23-4, 11-3 ACC) points. For most of the quarter, the Wolfpack took almost the entire shot clock to get a shot off, which usually ended up being a tough and contested 3 from Rivers, who missed all five of her attempts in the quarter.
It didn’t help that NC State’s leading scorer, senior guard Aziaha James, only played two minutes because of foul trouble. In the following quarter, it was obvious how much the Wolfpack missed James in the second when she scored 14 of the Pack’s 22 third-quarter points to cut Carolina’s deficit to three.
If James doesn’t get into foul trouble, who knows if the Wolfpack can maintain its first-quarter lead, but Moore wasn’t happy with how she got into foul trouble and felt it hurt the team.
“You just can’t do that,” Moore said. “She’s gotta just get back, defend, but she comes up half court and picks up her second foul and sits quite a bit.”
Even though the Wolfpack held the Tar Heels under their scoring average, Moore thought his team’s defense should’ve been better in key moments. Moore pointed to two instances late in the fourth quarter where NC State had a six-point lead but had a defensive breakdown that allowed UNC to stay in it.
With just over two minutes left in the fourth, the Wolfpack was up 60-54 but gave up an open 3 to Tar Heels guard Lexi Donarski, who has the sixth most career 3s among active players to cut the deficit to 60-57.
On the next possession, graduate guard Madison Hayes drained a 3 with under two minutes to go up 63-57 but once again the Pack gave up another open triple, this time to guard Reniya Kelly, who had a game-high 23 points and five 3-pointers.
While it didn’t give the Tar Heels the lead, it allowed them and the crowd to stay in it before UNC ended the game on a 6-0 run.
“Can put the game away with a couple of stops and instead we gave up 3s to great shooters,” Moore said. “We’ve got a good team. We could be a great team if we commit to defending and play with a little more urgency on that end.”
Despite suffering multiple defensive breakdowns in the final stretches, NC State still had a chance to win the game down 66-65 with 5.2 seconds left. James got the ball and curled around a screen, where she was met by two UNC defenders. Instead of getting a shot off, James slipped on the baseline as time ran out. Moore said the plan was for her to pass to Rivers on the opposite block but the slip didn’t allow James to get it to Rivers.
Carolina defended the play well, not allowing James to get a clear look at the basket or an open lane to pass to Rivers. It was a microcosm of the intense defense the Tar Heels played against a Wolfpack team that had averaged 88 points per game in its last three contests.
“I made it really simple, we have to take away their transition and make them play against our quarter court,” said Tar Heels head coach Courtney Banghart. “That was basically the key to the game. We cannot allow them to go out in transition and make them play against our set defense. I trust our set defense. I trust our coverages.”
So far, the Wolfpack has weathered its tough February schedule, going 3-1 with two wins over ranked opponents. But it doesn’t let up. NC State is set to visit No. 19 Georgia Tech on Thursday before hosting No. 2 Notre Dame on Sunday. Tip-off against the Yellow Jackets is set for 7 p.m.
