The No. 10 NC State women’s basketball team lost its second consecutive home game on Thursday, Jan. 5 to Boston College after falling to Duke on Dec. 29.
The Wolfpack (12-3, 2-2 ACC) was coming off a road win against Syracuse and had junior guard Diamond Johnson back for the first time since Dec. 11, but the Eagles (12-5, 2-2 ACC) were able to eke out the win 79-71, a score that doesn’t indicate how close the game really was.
Both teams traded buckets the whole game, but it was ball movement and scoring inside that put Boston College in position to win. The Eagles tallied 16 assists to NC State’s 10 and converted 3-point opportunities at a 50% rate to NC State’s 23.8%.
“We didn’t do a very good job against the zone,” said head coach Wes Moore. “[We] should have looked to attack more off the bounce, get to the rim, get the ball inside, and instead we settled for a lot of jump shots and a lot of 3s that didn’t go down.”
Boston College prioritized inside scoring early and often, with its first two baskets coming in the paint. Both teams experimented with rotations and defensive schemes to try and capitalize on the trends of the game. NC State’s paint defense improved as the quarter wore on with both senior center Camille Hobby and graduate center River Baldwin putting a body on anyone that entered the paint.
The Eagles implemented a press defense after senior forward Jada Boyd began to score at will, a defensive game plan that has derailed the NC State offense on multiple occasions this season. The Pack was able to break the press with the speed and shiftiness of Johnson off the bench, and Johnson and Boyd combined for 12 of the Pack’s 21 first-quarter points.
The Pack went into the second quarter with an attack mindset. Sophomore guard Saniya Rivers, along with Johnson, slashed to the basket to start the period, putting NC State up 29-19 with just under eight minutes left in the quarter. However, the Eagles matched this with a 12-0 run and tied the game at 35 points apiece going into the half.
Offense was hard to come by in the third quarter for the Pack. The team solely relied on Boyd for at least half of the period as she scored the first eight points for NC State. Boyd ended up scoring a season-high 20 points, but that wasn’t enough to combat Boston College’s efficiency.
After calling a timeout with 4:13 left in the third quarter, Moore implemented a full-court press of his own, and Rivers started to thrive on the defensive end. She racked up eight total steals in the contest, the most in a single game by anyone on the roster this season, as the press proved enough to thrust the red-and-white back into the game.
The Pack ran the press well into the fourth quarter, but the Eagles eventually found a way to pass out of it and hit open shots in the paint. NC State was unable to claw its way out of another hole, casting a wave of disappointment across the entire arena.
Moore feels that Johnson’s return will give the team a boost, but there needs to be improvement all around.
“Right now we’re not living up to what this program’s about,” Moore said. “We all have to look in the mirror and figure out what we can do to help this team be better.”
NC State has not gotten off to a good start in ACC play and will look for answers against Virginia on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 3 p.m. back in Reynolds Coliseum.
