CHARLOTTE, N.C., — No. 9 NC State women’s basketball suffered its first loss of the season to the No. 1 South Carolina Gamecocks at the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte. The Pack (1-1) and the Gamecocks (2-0) have met plenty of times before, including last year in the NCAA Final Four, which resulted in a 78-59 loss for the red-and-white.
“You know, nobody cares about last year, what we did last year,” said senior guard Aziaha James. “So we got to fix ourselves. We should have boxed out a lot. We got to fix those [problems] in practice and watch films and do the things that need to be done.”
Downing South Carolina was always going to be a hard feat. The Gamecocks haven’t lost a game since March 1, 2023, and tote some of the nation’s top players year in and year out. In short, nothing gets past the Gamecocks and the Pack fell victim to this quickly.
Head coach Wes Moore started a new lineup compared to the five he put on the court during the Pack’s first game of the season just five days earlier. Still trying to figure out the type of team he wants to show, Moore shuffled the bigs he put on the court in Charlotte multiple times to try to find a good fit, which might have cost the Pack some crucial momentum.
Familiar faces in the starting five included James, senior guard Saniya Rivers, graduate guard Madison Hayes and sophomore guard Zoe Brooks. Moore started sophomore center Mallory Collier for the first time in her collegiate career.
“We’re a team in transition right now,” Moore said. “We’re still trying to figure a lot of things out at the post. I’m worried about the post. Collier was two for three and [graduate center] Lizzie Williamson was two for three from the field, so they held their own. We’ve got some great guards, but they’ve got to play great for us as a team to be able to win a game like this.”
NC State came out ready to battle with the Gamecocks, keeping up with their momentum in the first quarter. Hayes opened the scoring with a 3-pointer less than a minute after the tipoff, but South Carolina answered with some help from guard Te-Hina Paopao. It was clear that the Pack needed to work on its defense in the paint early as South Carolina grabbed five offensive rebounds through the first frame along with multiple second-chance scoring chances.
Both head coaches shuffled their players early on, but Moore started to set up Williamson in the post, who scored back-to-back points to keep the Pack’s momentum going. While the game started off pretty even and NC State held the Gamecocks to 38% from the field, easy scoring chances from turnovers plagued the Pack. The red-and-white ended the quarter with nine turnovers compared to South Carolina’s three.
“[Brooks] does a really good job breaking defenses down,” Moore said. “And so she is capable of setting most players up, definitely. [Williamson] did well, probably should have played her more. It’s tough to match up, you know? Do you go with size or do you go speed? Unfortunately, they have both. And so it’s a big challenge knowing how to match up.”
The second quarter once again saw short bursts of Wolfpack momentum, but South Carolina always had an answer. Despite going on an 11-0 scoring run halfway through the quarter, NC State was unable to answer the Gamecocks’ efforts as they made seven straight field goals and finished the half on an 18-5 run, translating to a 39-30 lead through the first 20 minutes.
It seemed like no one on the Pack’s bench could get some steady momentum going. By halftime, two South Carolina players had hit the double-digit point mark, while only senior guard Aziaha James was close for the red-and-white with nine points. James played 17 minutes through the first half but was plagued with four turnovers herself.
In a deja-vu moment from the 2024 Final Four, the Wolfpack collapsed in the third quarter. With the Gamecocks hot on offense through all spaces on the court, the Pack was unable to execute at the basket. NC State failed to score a field goal for over seven minutes and was 0/8 from the field towards the end of the frame. The only saving grace for the Pack during this quarter was its free throw attempts, in which James and Rivers kept the red-and-white afloat.
“I thought we won the game over a 40-minute period,” said South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley. “I thought our defense, our ability to scramble out of situations, to recover [was good]. I know we didn’t put a whole lot of points on the scoreboard, but I was really pleased with our defensive effort and our ability to just smother them at times.”
Heading into the final frame down 58-43, the Wolfpack had to get momentum going quickly in order for the possibility of a comeback. While Brooks and freshman guard Zamareya Jones worked hard in the final minutes — the latter finishing her first game against a ranked opponent with 16 points — the red-and-white couldn’t make the comeback happen and cemented a 71-57 loss against the top team in the country.
“Anytime you have great guards, like [NC State has], they’re going to give you a shot,” Staley said. “The bigs are going to get better. I mean they just lack some experience. We’ve been there. Several of our bigs lack experience. … When their bigs get up to speed, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with.”
The Wolfpack continues its non-conference schedule with a matchup against Kent State in Reynolds Coliseum on Thursday with tipoff set for 7 p.m.
