After the first half ended, Billie McDowell jogged off the court with the weight of the world on her shoulders following a 1-for-6 start from the field. But one minute in the second half changed her whole demeanor as she drilled two three-pointers — emphatically pumping her fist signaling the end of her struggles.
McDowell’s threes lifted N.C. State to a seven-point lead over Miami with under six minutes to go, which was a lead it would not surrender as it overcame a halftime deficit to win 83-77 in Reynolds Coliseum Thursday night.
“To credit our team, they just hung tough,” coach Kay Yow said. “Billie was 1-for-6 in the first half, and she still has confidence in her shot. She was ready, and when she had that open look, she took it. She gave us a big lift and a boost in the beginning of the second half and throughout that time, so that was critical for us and for her.”
State (13-6, 3-3) raced off to an early start, in which threes and rebounding gave it a big advantage, and led by as much as eight points in the first half.
“It was really deflating to start the game and have them score eight of their first 11 off of second-chance points, especially when we were so very concerned about it,” Miami coach Katie Meier said.
Tiffany Stansbury and Khadijah Whittington combined for 17 points and nine rebounds and scored the majority of the Wolfpack’s 13 second-chance points on easy put-backs in the paint.
“We just crashed the boards,” Whittington said. “We’ve been working on going to the boards in practice, and we just took what we did in practice into the game, and it had a good outcome.”
The Pack’s lead, though, quickly dwindled after an onslaught of points by Miami (13-6, 3-3) point guard Renee Taylor. Taylor finished the game with 29 points, including shooting 5-6 on three-pointers.
“I was just ready to play. I mean, whatever I could do for the team, I want to do,” Taylor said. “Whether it be steals, whether it be charges, it just happened to be points today. I just went out and played and took my shots. My teammates set me some screens, and I hit some shots.”
With help from 12 points from Taylor in the last five minutes of the half, the Hurricanes were able to grab a three-point lead at halftime, which caused Yow to make the winning-adjustments at the break.
“Both coaching staffs made a lot of adjustments,” Meier said. “It was a great basketball game; I wish it would have been on TV because the adjustments were incredible.”
In the second half, State’s balance proved to be too much, as it ended the game with six players in double figures, compared to Miami who had two players combine for nearly two-thirds of its teams scoring effort.
“The difference in the game was N.C. State’s balance,” Meier said. “People were moving their scorers around, but the difference was that N.C. State has six people in double figures. They were burning us in a lot of ways.”
The game was iced with 1:38 remaining when Marquetta Dickens hit a fall away jumper with the shot clock winding down and State up by just four points.
After Dickens shot, State was able to add onto the lead with six more free throws and withstand a last desperation run by Miami, who could not cut into the six-point lead as the clock expired.
“It does a lot for our confidence because Miami is a really good team; they’re playing with a lot of confidence, and we just have to take this win and learn from all the mistakes that we made,” Whittington said. “Even though we won, we made a lot of mistakes so we’ll just work on that and be ready to play.”
State now turns its attention to its game against Boston College before its showdown with second ranked UNC.
