The NC State women’s basketball team came up just short in a 57-53 loss against Rutgers at Louis Brown Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey on Thursday night.

The Wolfpack (6-2) shot poorly from the field and committed 22 turnovers to the Scarlet Knights (6-2) as a part of the Big Ten/ ACC Challenge. Senior forward Chelsea Nelson was a bright spot for the Pack with a team-leading 14 points and 15 rebounds.

In the first half, State thrived off of ball movement, rebounds and defensive pressure in the back-and-forth matchup. Going into the third quarter with a slim 31-28 advantage, team defense and ball control were enough to compensate for poor shooting.

Things got even uglier for the Wolfpack in the third quarter where the team put up only seven points in the frame. Although Rutgers was not shooting well from the floor either, the Scarlet Knights were able to take the lead by creating more turnovers and shooting 73.3 percent from the foul line on the night versus only 53.8 percent from NC State.

The Wolfpack defense also had difficulty all night guarding Rutgers guard Tyler Scaife, who scored nearly half of the Scarlet Knights’ points with 27 points on 23 shots. Although no other Rutgers player recorded more than seven points, the Pack did not have an answer to the dominance from Scaife.

Nelson, sophomore guard Aislinn Konig and redshirt junior guard Kiara Leslie all recorded double-digit points for an offensive unit that struggled to gain traction, especially in the last half of the game.

Thanks to out-rebounding the Scarlet Knights 44 to 27, the Wolfpack made it close in the last minutes of the game. After being down by as much as seven in the last three minutes, the dismal free throw shooting and offensive ball movement from NC State awoke as senior center Akela Maize and Nelson drained all four of their foul shots and a Leslie 3-pointer got the score to 54-50 with less than two minutes in regulation.

Following a timeout and a Rutgers turnover, the Wolfpack narrowed the lead to 54-52 with 1:02 remaining off of an assisted jump shot by Nelson. Inability to control rebounds and make free throws late in the game were costly to Pack as the Scarlet Knights went on to win by four points.

After starting the season with six straight victories, NC State has now lost its last two contests. The Wolfpack will aim to get back in the win column when they return to Reynolds Coliseum for a four-game home stretch starting Sunday with a matchup against Tulane.