Shreyans Surana
Freshmen center Elissa Cunane, gets past Wake Forest's freshman guard Ellen Hahne, and freshman forward Lindsey Jarosinski, , at Reynolds Coliseum on Thursday, Feb 21, 2019. Wolfpack beat the Demon Deacons 80-46.
No. 10 NC State women’s basketball will look to build on its recent momentum as the team travels to Kentucky to face No. 3 Louisville.
The No. 10 Wolfpack (24-3, 11-3 ACC) started off its season red hot becoming the longest lasting undefeated team in all of college basketball, men’s or women’s, but has cooled off in recent weeks. All three of the team’s losses have come in the month of February, including two losses in three of the team’s games against ranked opponents. The first of those losses came against UNC, who the team beat in the rematch this past Sunday.
The Cardinals (25-2, 12-2 ACC), much like the Pack, come into Thursday’s game on the back of a two-game win streak, taking down both Virginia and Boston College along the way.
For Louisville, success this season has been built on the back of a high-scoring offense. The Cardinals rank 16th in the country in terms of overall scoring with 79.2 points per game. The largest contributor to that scoring is senior guard Asia Durr who averages just over 20 points per game, a consistent and experienced scorer for the Cardinals, Durr has averaged over 18.5 points per game every season since her sophomore season.
Comparatively the Wolfpack ranks 65th in the country in terms of scoring per game, but averages just under seven points less per game than Louisville. The Wolfpack makes up for this, however, with a solid defense, which is ranked 48th in the country, almost 10 places higher than its Cardinal counterparts.
In terms of scoring margin the Cardinals edge the Wolfpack by a little over six points, however both teams rank within the top 30 in terms of scoring margin.
One of the revelations for the Wolfpack this season has been true-freshman center Elissa Cunane. The freshman has averaged 13 points per game this season, behind graduate guard Kiara Leslie, who averages 16 points per game, and redshirt junior guard Grace Hunter, who averages 14.6 points per game, among active players.
While Cunane has been good all season, the center has started to hit her stride at just the right time as the regular season starts to draw to a close. Cunane has averaged 19.2 points per game across the team’s last five games, including a career-high 28 points in the team’s loss to No. 5 Notre Dame.
If Cunane and the rest of the Wolfpack can build on their recent momentum, Louisville will have a difficult time stopping the Wolfpack on Thursday night.
The game will tip off at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky at 7 p.m. and can be watched on ACC Network Extra.