On Education Day at Reynolds Coliseum, No. 10 NC State women’s basketball came up with a dominant 83-51 win over Hampton to extend its season-opening win streak to nine games.
The Wolfpack (9-0) displayed a balanced attack against the Pirates (3-3), shooting 39 percent from 3-point range and also scoring 32 points in the paint. Graduate guard Kiara Leslie led the way with 24 points on 8 of 12 shooting and 12 rebounds.
“I was real pleased with the way we came out and started the game,” head coach Wes Moore said. “You never know when you’re playing at 10:30 in the morning what you’re going to get. I felt like our players were ready to play and had a lot of energy. … I thought we took care of business pretty well. The second half I thought we had some slippage, so we have a lot of things to work on. But it was good to get off to a good start and get some momentum. Hopefully we can build off that.”
The Wolfpack roared out to a 23-9 lead over the Pirates in the first quarter. Leslie got off to a red-hot start, with nine points in the opening frame, including a layup with three seconds left to put the Pack up by 14.
“My teammates were executing the plays and I just happened to be open and hit open shots,” Leslie said. “It’s all my teammates; they were setting me up for great shots.”
NC State attacked the lane early, scoring over 50 percent (12) of its first-quarter points in the paint.
The Wolfpack continued to pull away early in the second quarter, with back-to-back 3’s from junior guard Aislinn Konig, who finished with 16 points, and Leslie giving the team a 22-point lead. NC State stayed in control through the opening half, taking a 41-22 lead to the break.
“We want to be balanced,” Moore said. “Really we want to work inside-out, get some post touches. But we are pretty quick to shoot the 3, no doubt. When it’s going in, that’s good. But we would like to spread people out, take them off the bounce, get post touches and try to have a balanced attack.”
Redshirt junior guard Grace Hunter joined Leslie and Konig in double figures, with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
After Hampton opened the third quarter with a 9-4 run, Leslie drilled a shot from beyond the arc to put NC State back up by 17 at 48-31. After the Pirates cut NC State’s lead to 13, its smallest since the first quarter, Konig knocked down a 3 to push it back to 55-39 Wolfpack. That trey sparked a 6-0 run to close that quarter for the Pack, giving it a 58-39 lead going into the final frame.
Everytime Hampton gained a little momentum, the Pack hit a big shot to take it back.
“I think it gives us a really good opportunity to stay in games and not get too caught up in the swing of a certain momentum for the other team,” Konig said. “Having people that we can count on to make shots makes it really easy for us. We don’t have to think about if we have to get it to them in a certain way because we can trust that they’re going to do the right thing with the ball.”
Sophomore guard Kai Crutchfield was knocked to the court after running into a screen with just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter and had to be helped off by trainers. Moore said she will go through concussion protocol.
The Wolfpack will be back in action Friday at Georgetown.
