Despite trailing for over 34 minutes, No. 20 NC State women’s basketball defeated the Syracuse Orange 74-66 in New York Thursday night. The Wolfpack hunkered down and got the job done late in the game to extend its win streak to four games and hold on to second place in the ACC. Sophomore guard Zoe Brooks led the Wolfpack with 19 points and eight rebounds.
NC State (15-4, 7-1 ACC) won the tip and was the first to strike with a 3-pointer from graduate guard Madison Hayes, but the red-and-white fell behind less than three minutes later and didn’t lead again until three minutes remained in the game. On the other hand, Syracuse (7-12, 1-7 ACC) attacked the Pack with an energy that it probably wasn’t anticipating from the 17th-ranked team in the ACC coming into the game off of back-to-back losses.
The Orange jumped out to a nine-point lead in the first quarter, largely due to the efforts of Syracuse guard Sophie Burrows, who totaled nine points and six rebounds in the period. NC State struggled to counter the Orange’s fluid ball movement and strong shooting, instead playing much more choppily and lacking leadership on the court. The Wolfpack shot 36.8% from the floor compared to Syracuse’s 55.0%.
The Pack kept pace with Syracuse in the second quarter, but it struggled against the Orange’s zone defense. Brooks kept the red-and-white alive with quick transition layups and drives to the basket, totaling eight points in the period. NC State played very out of sync as a team, which forced it to rely heavily on individual playmaking and put the visitors at a stark disadvantage. By the end of the half, the Wolfpack trailed 42-32, the largest halftime deficit that it’s faced in ACC play this season.
The start of the third quarter was more of the same — Syracuse came out with high energy
while NC State played with the enthusiasm of a team that was on the winning side of a blowout. It wasn’t until five minutes remained in the quarter that the game started to get interesting when Hayes hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 7-0 run that cut the Orange’s lead to three points, 49-46. From that point on, the Pack never trailed by more than four.
With one period left to play, Hayes continued to be the spark that the Wolfpack had needed all night long. The veteran forward hit an and-1 layup at the start of the fourth quarter to tie the contest at 57-57. The two teams went back and forth until the Pack took the lead for the third and final time at 67-66 with 1:45 left to play, thanks to a free throw from Brooks.
Senior guard Saniya Rivers sank another free throw to bring the score to 70-66 with 27 seconds to go and make it a two-possession game. As the clock wound down, freshman center Lorena Awou was fouled on the floor and Syracuse head coach Felisha Legette-Jack committed a technical foul, which presented the Pack with the perfect opportunity to bury the hatchet. Awou sank one of her two shots and Brooks made both of the free throws awarded for the technical foul to extend NC State’s lead to 73-66. Brooks made one last free throw with 10 seconds remaining to cement the 74-66 victory.
Next up, NC State is set to host Virginia Tech at Reynolds Coliseum on Sunday at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.
