Things could not be going much better for head coach Wes Moore and the NC State women’s basketball program right now. Things looked dicey after the team’s first and only loss to rival UNC-Chapel Hill, but since then the Pack has rattled off seven straight ACC wins, with the most recent one being a tight 63-60 contest against Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

With the tail end of the season approaching and a real chance of breaking the 29-year championship drought for NC State, here’s what we know heading into the last two months of the season.

Youth providing valuable minutes

It can be argued that the maturity of this team is its most impressive feature. The Pack is poised and does not put pressure on itself when they get into jams.

What makes the Wolfpack even scarier is this team is very young. Two of NC State’s leading scorers are freshman wing Jakia Brown-Turner and sophomore center Elissa Cunane, and both can provide points in a pinch.

With this team already being elite, these two talented underclassmen have not even reached their potential, which is terrifying for the rest of the conference.

Even if the Pack is unable to bring a conference title back to Raleigh this season, Brown-Turner and Cunane will be back and even better the following season.

Cunane has to play well down the stretch

While NC State can get points from many different players, especially from beyond the arc, it will still be essential for Cunane to lead this team in March.

On the rare occasion the Pack falls behind to a team, it has been able to rely on Cunane to get buckets while the rest of the team is still trying to find their shot.

This was clearly the case in the team’s last game against the Blue Devils, where Cunane put up 13 points in the third quarter alone. Even with the Pack down heading into the fourth, Cunane scored the first six points out of the gate to give the lead back to NC State. That momentum Cunane provided would carry onto the rest of the game, a game where the Pack was just able to pull out a slim margin of victory.

Cunane has averaged 16.5 points per game so far this season, and those points along with her leadership will be needed throughout the rest of the year.

Pushing through adversity

When the going gets tough, the tough get going, and that can easily be a phrase that describes this year’s team.

Moore has done a terrific job instilling a winning mentality within the Pack, and they have been able to win games that, on paper, they should not have won.

That is a number-one indicator of a truly elite team, and this one has not only the talent but the winning mentality to go far in not only the ACC tournament but the NCAA tournament.

Wolfpack fans know “NC State stuff” well. Rarely is anything going to go the Wolfpack’s way, but despite this, the team has pushed through this year.

With a vital game in a little over a week against a Louisville team that sits atop the ACC standings, NC State is going to have a chance to put themselves in the driver’s seat for a regular-season ACC crown.

With the state of men’s basketball, Wolfpack fans could sure use that right now.