Pack slips past Premier Players

Coach Kay Yow’s Wolfpack women took the court for the first time since March in the women’s basketball team’s exhibition against Premier Players last night in Reynolds Coliseum. N.C. State defeated the team of former collegiate athletes 59-53.

The tune-up game was the team’s first and only preseason contest, as State will begin regular season play Nov. 15 in Raleigh for the first game of the Wolfpack Invitational.

The scrappy play of the Premier Players squad kept the game close early, but 10 first half turnovers and 7-of-29 shooting from the field allowed the Pack to pull away 30-20 just before the horn. Junior Lucy Ellison paced the Pack with seven rebounds while sophomore Brittany Strachan led State in the first half with 10 points. Yow praised Strachan’s play after the game.

“She’s our best three-point shooter,” Yow said. “I would have liked to see her take more shots.”

After halftime, State grew its lead to 15 before the Premier Players surged back into the game, bringing the score to 51-49 with fewer than five minutes left in the second half. Yow indirectly blamed Tuesday’s election for the team’s sluggishness.

“I bet they were up really late [Tuesday],” Yow said. “It was a big night and I understand, but we’ve got to get serious about the game.”

Yow said she managed to get a full night’s rest while still keeping tabs on the elections.

“I went ahead to bed and woke up in the middle of the night, turned the TV on and checked the scores of the races,” Yow said.

Lone senior Shayla Fields hit two free throws, but the Premier Players’ Kenya McBee hit a three to make the score 53-52 as State struggled to score on key possessions.

“We’re a better team than this shooting percentage shows,” Yow said of the Pack’s 32.8 percent effort from the field. “They looked unlike themselves tonight.”

Strachan hit a three with under two minutes to go to put the pack up 56-52, and State’s defense kept the Players from getting back into the contest to win 59-53.

Fields was on the court the entire game and finished with 17 points on 5-for-14 shooting and a perfect 5-for-5 from the foul line. Strachan also poured in three shots from behind the arc on her way to 14 points.

“It’s good that we can win a game not playing near to our potential,” Yow said. “We hung in there and when it got tight we still played and we got the rebounds when we needed them and got the stops when we needed them, and it enabled us to win the game. The worse thing would have been if we didn’t win this game.”