The third-seeded NC State women’s basketball team (28-5) will head to Greensboro on Saturday to take on the second-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes (28-6) in the third round of the NCAA tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum. This will be the second consecutive Sweet 16 appearance for the Wolfpack.
The Pack had a big game against the sixth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats on Monday, with three players scoring double-doubles, and four finishing with double-digit points.
Graduate guard Kiara Leslie shot 9 for 21 from the field and totaled 10 rebounds and 26 points. Freshman center Elissa Cunane continues to impress, going 4 for 10 from the field with 15 rebounds and 13 points. Senior forward DD Rogers chipped in 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Continuing to get rebounds will be crucial for the Pack going into its game against the Hawkeyes. The Iowa team as a whole has a field-goal percentage of .520. Senior Megan Gustafson is the leading scorer for the Hawkeyes, averaging 28 points per game on the season with a field-goal percentage of .701.
Iowa is coming off a win against seventh-seeded Missouri, which the Hawkeyes won 68-52. Gustafson went 10 for 15 from the field and totaled 19 rebounds and 22 points, the only double-double for the Hawkeyes.
With 19 rebounds, Gustafson single-handedly got more than half of the total number of rebounds for her team. She is now the Big Ten’s all-time leader in career rebounds with a total of 1,438 rebounds.
This Sweet 16 appearance will be the 13th in program history for the Wolfpack, and it will be the first time the Pack has made it two consecutive years in a row since 1990 and 1991.
The game will tip-off at 11:30 a.m. in the Greensboro Coliseum.
Sophomore guard Kai Crutchfield drives past Kentucky guard Taylor Murray during the second round of the NCAA Tournament on March 25, 2019 in Reynolds Coliseum. Crutchfield scored 11 points in the Wolfpack's 72-57 victory.
