The NC State women’s basketball team is rolling after knocking off a No. 1-seeded team for the second time this season. After a back-to-back series against Virginia Tech and its stunning upset, it’s time to look at some recent trends for the Wolfpack.

Elissa Cunane’s return

For the first time since Jan. 3, junior center Elissa Cunane returned to the lineup. Instead of showing rust in the Feb. 1 matchup with No. 1 Louisville, which would have been expected, Cunane immediately returned to form by putting up 16 points and six boards.

It’s obvious to see just how much Cunane affects the team, but it gets even more evident with outings like these, a game in which the Pack won by 14. Cunane is the embodiment of everything that’s admirable about this team: the leadership, the poise, the consistency and the willingness to prove doubters wrong.

If fans need even more convincing, Cunane ranks above the 95th percentile of all Division I players in points per game, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and blocks per game, and above the 90th in several other categories. Her efficiency compared to her shooting figures is only comparable to players like Louisville’s senior Dana Evans and Cunane’s own teammate sophomore forward Jada Boyd.

Needless to say, in the two games without her, the Pack missed Cunane. Having Cunane already up to speed is huge for the team as it traverses through the rest of its season schedule before tournament play presumably begins in March.

Impact of Raina Perez

Entering the season, the Wolfpack had to figure out how it was going to help make up for the open space in its starting lineup following the graduation of guard Aislinn Konig. Luckily for the Pack, head coach Wes Moore was able to score one of the best transfer guards on the market in graduate guard Raina Perez.

Perez hasn’t simply held down the position, she’s gone above and beyond the call of duty in nearly every game she has played in. Notably, Perez brings the heart and scrappiness that a team leader should game in and game out.

“I’m incredibly impressed with [Perez],” Konig said in a recent interview. “She’s undersized, but Raina [Perez] is an undersized guard that came to the ACC, and lots of people would be talking about, ‘Oh small conference,’ but she came in and set the tone, and she leads the team well. She’s a very steady force on the floor.”

Perez brings a lot to the Wolfpack and provides a lot of on-court value that often gets overlooked. The 5-foot-4 guard is averaging 10.2 points per game and leads the team with 60 total assists, is second in total steals and plays the third-most minutes per game for the team.

Taking a look at the advanced stats, Perez is part of each of the four most-used lineups by the Pack. The lowest net rating of such lineups? A whopping plus-22.9 net rating. The most-used lineup by NC State of Cunane, senior guard Kai Crutchfield, senior forward Kayla Jones, sophomore wing Jakia Brown-Turner and Perez boasts a ridiculously efficient plus-33.4 net rating in 137 minutes played together. The lineup shoots an effective field goal percentage of 54.9%, while opponents shoot just 40.8%, a metric that accounts for the fact that 3’s count for more than 2’s.

Loss to Virginia Tech wasn’t as bad of a loss as it seems

NC State’s loss to Virginia Tech in the second game of a back-to-back matchup between the two teams was the reason for the Pack’s fall from No. 2 to No. 4 in the latest AP poll. This was an already questionable decision by the board of voters, but it gets even worse when one considers the fact that the 9-7 Hokies are actually quite a good team.

Virginia Tech has plenty of strong wins and only has one double-digit loss for the entire year, losing by just four to then-No. 2 Louisville and by two to then-No. 2 NC State before beating the Pack by 12 in overtime the following game. The Hokies may not be ranked, but the Wolfpack held off senior Aisha Sheppard and sophomore Elizabeth Kitley without Cunane in the first matchup, then took the Hokies to overtime in the following game.

Considering the fact that the Pack went three entire weeks between games and didn’t have its entire team ready to practice during that time, it’s hard to penalize NC State for dropping a game in overtime to a competitive team with a dominant center without its own star center in Cunane. Time will tell if the Wolfpack’s win over No. 1 Louisville will lead to a top spot in the AP poll.

Toppling No. 1 twice

Needless to say, it’s hard to find an argument that any team in the country has had a better season than NC State. Sure, South Carolina and Louisville played at an uncharacteristically poor level in each of NC State’s wins over the then-No. 1 teams, assuming Louisville drops, but the Pack still beat both when it mattered most.

According to ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel, only two other times in the last 20 years has a team defeated two No. 1-ranked teams in the same season: Stanford in 2007-08 and Maryland in 2005-06. That Maryland team went on to win the national championship. Just some food for thought.