Fans will get their first glance at the women’s basketball team tonight in Reynolds Coliseum. The game against the Premier Players will be the only exhibition for the Wolfpack before opening its season Nov. 15 with the Wolfpack Invitational.
N.C. State returns four out of five starters from the 21-13 team last season. But the one loss was a big one, as Khadijah Whittington, the team’s leader in points, rebounds, blocks and steals, graduated and the Indiana Fever of the WNBA drafted her. But the team is confident it can step up in her absence.
“[Whittington] is a big loss, but we’re all really talented,” sophomore forward Brittany Strachan said.
Junior guard Nikitta Gartrell agreed with Strachan about losing Whittington.
“We lost a big key to the game,” Gartrell said. “We are talented enough to pull it off without [Whittington], but that’s a big loss — we just got to play our hardest, and I think we can pull it off.”
Although it is just an exhibition game, Premier Players is a team made up of former Division I athletes from schools such as Florida, Tennessee, Georgia Tech and others that travel to test top teams before every season.
“No matter who we play, we always want to come out and play hard,” Gartrell said. “We take every game, and try to pull it out. We play hard and do our job, and don’t look down at anyone.”
Last season, the Premier Players defeated the Pack 61-49 with 13 buckets from beyond the arc. It was the Premier Players’ eighth game in eight nights. The team also beat then No. 9 Georgia during its exhibition rounds last year.
“You never look down on an opponent at all. Everyone is talented in their own special way,” Strachan said. “[We’re preparing] for them just like any other team you would prepare for.”
This season, coach Kay Yow and senior guard Shayla Fields should reach some very prestigious milestones. State needs only seven more wins to get 700 in program history, while Yow needs to coach in 10 more games to reach 1,000 games coached. This will be Yow’s 38th year as a head coach and the 34th with the Pack. Senior guard Shayla Fields is also within reach of the 1000 point milestone, with 187 points to go before she becomes the 25th player in program history to reach that mark.
“Those things are just added motivation to go out there and do your best, work hard every day, [and] be prepared physically and emotionally,” Strachan said.
The team is motivated to have a good season and confident they can produce despite whatever is thrown its way this year, according to Strachan.
“We’re all going to come together and it’s going to be fun,” she said. “We’re going to do our best.”
