In its conference home opener, No. 22 NC State women’s basketball faced off against the Clemson Tigers in a back-and-forth battle, which it narrowly won by a final score of 83-79.
The Wolfpack (10-3, 2-0 ACC) saw the game as an opportunity to end 2024 with a bang and correct its loss against James Madison, in which it only made 14 percent of its shots. Clemson (8-5, 1-1 ACC), on the other hand, came into the matchup looking to steal a big road win in conference play.
The Pack was put in several points of adversity throughout, mainly due to the high-profile shooting of Clemson. The Tigers made 15 3-pointers throughout the entire game and were able to capitalize, taking a 57-50 lead in the third quarter. The Pack responded with an offensive surge in the fourth quarter, taking an 83-74 lead with 29 seconds left. Clemson hit a few last-minute shots, cutting the deficit to four at the end of the game but it was not enough to make a comeback.
“We just continued to play together,” said graduate guard Madison Hayes. “We know there’s gonna be some highs and lows, but we just remember to keep each other’s heads up and just play through it.”
The Wolfpack lineup saw a change to open the game as freshman forward Tilda Trygger made her first collegiate start. Trygger ended the game with six points and three rebounds.
“I felt like [Trygger] had been coming on and playing well, and wanted to give her an opportunity,” said head coach Wes Moore. “It’s tough when you’re a freshman and get thrown into this environment and atmosphere, but I thought she held her own pretty well and hopefully we can build on that.”
The red-and-white won the game with an even offensive attack. It had four players score in double figures, three upperclassmen and the other being sophomore guard Zoe Brooks. The leading scorer was Hayes with 19 points. Despite facing adversity throughout the game, the Pack got the victory by feeding off of a sold-out crowd and staying together.
“When the crowd is loud, I feel like that helps us, and we play really good that way,” Brooks said.
This game can serve as a big confidence booster for the Pack, not because of the opponent that they beat but because of how it responded to points of adversity. This team has already been facing hardship throughout the season with multiple players being injured and by falling behind in games.
“I’m proud of our team for overcoming some adversity,” Moore said. “Rivers picking up three fouls pretty early — I kind of gambled and left her in there some but it did mean we had to change matchups and then, consequently, we had a hard time guarding them. Then James went out for a few minutes with a tweak of some kind of injury, and she was able to come back in. They were able to overcome all that, so I’m proud.”
This game was extremely important for NC State with regards to setting the tone for the rest of the season as all the games played from now on in the regular season are conference games. With that change of slate, there is certainly a mentality change from both the players and the coaching staff.
“We always talk about when you start conference play it’s a new season,” Moore said. “It’s starting all over and all these games are going to be really tough. So now, you need to raise your level of play up, you got to raise your focus, your intensity and you got to really battle. I thought we did that down the stretch, so that’s a good sign, but now we got to put that together for 40 minutes, which is a bit harder. I hope every game right now we’re locked in, focused and ready to compete.”
While NC State did not have a pretty game, it is still going to be a good momentum builder going into 2025. Any game where a team has to battle and grind is going to give them experience that they will need before playing high-caliber teams. NC State will move forward into 2025 being undefeated both at home and in ACC play.
The Wolfpack will play its next game on Jan. 5 in Reynolds Coliseum against Boston College. The game is slated to start at 2 p.m.
