After an underwhelming season faced with a plethora of adversity, the NC State women’s basketball team finds itself in the cusps of a 2015 Women’s National Invitational Tournament bid, with the Wolfpack’s first game to tip off on Thursday, Mar. 19 at 7 p.m. in Johnson City, Tennessee against the East Tennessee State Buccaneers.
The Pack (16-14, 7-9 ACC) has dealt with more than a fair share of roadblocks, beginning with the NCAA ruling Bosnian center Sara Boric ineligible for the 2014-2015 season, forcing her to sit out for a redshirt year. After that, NC State was plagued by season ending injuries, starting with freshman guard Chloe Jackson, then senior guard and team captain Krystal Barrett, and ending with junior forward Ashley Eli.
These factors have knocked the roster down to seven scholarship athletes and nine total players, undoubtedly taking a toll on the team and hurting its NCAA Tournament chances. The starting three guards — redshirt senior Len’Nique Brown-Hoskin, redshirt sophomore Dominique Wilson and sophomore Miah Spencer — typically see a bare minimum of 35 minutes every game, barring foul trouble, in result of the injuries.
The Wolfpack has proved that it can give tough teams a hard time, with its biggest victory coming in a 72-59 thrashing of the No. 10 Duke Blue Devils. In the victory, NC State shot 12-of-25 from three point range, resulting in half of the team’s points.
That being said, the Pack will need big production from all three of its starting guards. For example, in the victory against Duke, the triage combined for 53 points. However, in the first round ACC Tournament loss against the lowest seeded team in the tournament in Virginia Tech, the lack of scoring from the guards hurt the team.
While Spencer had a strong scoring game with 19 points on 5-of-9 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line, Wilson and Brown-Hoskin struggled, combining for 12 points on 2-of-12 from the field.
Per Pack Athletics, East Tennessee State (21-11, 11-3 SoCon) ranks 18th in the country in field goal percentage, converting 44.7 percent of its shots from the field. The Wolfpack will need to play strong on both sides of the ball against a team like this in order to keep up with its pace and explosive shooting attack.
NC State’s biggest advantage will be that it has taken on very strong ACC teams all year. With a handful of those teams playing in the NCAA Tournament, it gives the Pack the upper hand against some of the lesser known teams that derive from smaller conferences.
