Aziaha James brings the heat, leads NC State to the Sweet 16

Aziaha James started NC State’s round of 32 win over Tennessee with a fastbreak layup off of the opening tip. Then, she scored 10 fourth-quarter points when the Wolfpack needed her most. 

There’s no secret to her scoring skill. She just plays every minute the same way. The All-ACC first team guard did not come off the court Monday. From the first possession of the game until the last, James was ready to change the game. 

“Just play the whole 40 minutes,” James said after the game. “I didn’t hear a buzzer, so I’m just going to keep playing until the end.”

James shrugged off that comment like her 22 point, 7 assist, 2 steal day was easy. Her performance against the Volunteers, which included acrobatic layups that banked off the glass, clutch threes and pinpoint precision passes, was far from it. 

For the second-consecutive NCAA Tournament game, she scored double-digit points in the second half. James showed up when it mattered most again. For her teammates, and the fans in the raucous Reynolds Coliseum crowd, this was nothing new. 

“Aziaha is always Aziaha,” graduate forward Mimi Collins said. “You truly get to see that nobody can guard her on all levels…

“It’s like watching your favorite movie that you just get to see over and over and over again, but I’m just super proud of her.”

Freshman guard Zoe Brooks has full faith in her upperclassman guard as well. She knows, if James isn’t scoring well, she can take over as a facilitator. The Wolfpack’s star guard did both at a high level Monday. 

Matched up against Tennessee’s physical, SEC guards, James shot 45 percent from the field and did not turn the ball over. She also helped hold the Volunteers’ starting backcourt to 5 of 15 shooting from the field. 

James prides herself on starting each game with the intensity she carries through the rest of the matchup. She brought that all-out effort against the Volunteers, and it helped carry NC State to a hard-fought win. 

“My biggest thing is come out with heat,” James said. “We already knew they were an SEC team, and they were going to come out physical, so we had to do the same thing. I feel like in the beginning, that’s what we did. We came out with all the heat.”

Tennessee made a push in the second half, out-scoring the Wolfpack by 10 to cut into the program’s 18-point lead. James leaned back on the mantra that has now carried the program to a Sweet 16. This is a player-led team. 

Nearly every member of the team has mentioned that at some point this season, and that was never clearer than during Sunday’s round of 32 victory. James scored back-to-back buckets twice in the fourth quarter— once after Tennessee cut its deficit to 6 early in the period and again when the Volunteers pulled within 2 with 4:16 remaining in the game. 

And during all of the fourth-quarter chaos that put this tournament game in limbo, James still found the energy to lift up her teammates in the closing minutes. 

Rivers, who has ascended into stardom alongside her backcourt counterpart this season, missed 3 free throws in the fourth quarter. James made sure to offer some words of encouragement.

“I’m telling you, I don’t know what I would do without Zaza in my ears,” Rivers said. “We probably hug at least three times a game. There’s always going to be a point [that] I get in my head, and I’ve got to get out of that, especially being the point guard, but she’s always there. 

“Those free throws when I was going 1 for 2 in the stretch there, she was in my ear, ‘Come on, we just need one, maybe two.’”

James was right. Rivers knocked down her second attempt with 49 seconds to extend the Wolfpack lead back to 3 scores. The team held on from there and advanced to the next round with a 79-72 victory. 

No. 2 seed Stanford, a future ACC opponent that holds a 2-1 record against the NC State all time, will face off against the player-led Pack Friday in Portland, Oregon.

In the couple of days before the team heads to the West Coast, James plans on resting, recovering and keeping her routine consistent as she prepares to lead the Wolfpack deeper into the postseason. 

“We’re going to do what we do, and we’re going to come out good,” James said.