No. 3 NC State holds off late push from Liberty, moves to 10-0

For the first time in a long time, Wes Moore coached through a rain delay Sunday afternoon. No. 3 NC State women’s basketball held off a late run from Liberty after the Reynolds Coliseum roof began to leak late in the game, leaving its home court with a 80-67 win. 

Moore said he used to coach softball in college, but he has not had to deal with a rain delay in years. Play stopped between the third and fourth quarters for more than 20 minutes.

NC State maintained its double-digit lead over the final 10 minutes to secure the victory. Moore was proud of how his team responded to the water-based adversity. 

“You’re glad that they were able to keep their focus and come back after that 30-minute delay and be able to pick back up and play pretty well from there too,” Moore said.  

Freshman guard Zoe Brooks made her first start of the season in place of junior guard Saniya Rivers, who was unavailable for Sunday’s showdown due to a back issue. Moore said she went through shoot around and is hopeful the guard can return for the program’s next game. 

Brooks finished her debut in the starting lineup with NC State’s first triple-double since 2001, racking up 14 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. The first-year member of the Wolfpack scored the host’s first two points of the game, adding 5 rebounds and 2 assists in the opening 10 minutes. 

Liberty shot 27.3 percent in the first quarter but knocked down a trio of triples, including one from beyond half court at the buzzer, that kept the visitors in the game. Junior guard Aziaha James paced the program with 10 points in the first quarter and helped the Wolfpack take a 24-15 advantage into the second. She led the team with 18 in the game.

NC State scored 13 points in the second quarter against Liberty’s 16. Freshman guard Laci Steele accounted for 3 of the program’s 5 made field goals, hitting a pair of threes to help her lead the team with 8 points in the period. 

The program hit 1 of its final 7 shots going into halftime, and Liberty went into the break on a 6-0 run. NC State shot 29.4 percent from the field in the second quarter, while the visiting Flames knocked down 40 percent of their attempts. Liberty also finished the period with 1 personal foul called, while the refs whistled the Pack for 6 infractions. 

“We’re not playing as well now as we were, for whatever reason,” Moore said. “I need to look at the film and try to determine exactly what’s going on. I think we still, even when a team is playing zone, we want to push tempo, still try to score in transition, still try to attack and get into gaps and make things happen.”

Despite the cold-shooting quarter, the Pack maintained a 37-31 advantage after the first two quarters. Graduate center River Baldwin and Brooks battled on the boards and tied for a team-leading six rebounds. 

By the final whistle, the freshman paced the hosts with 11 rebounds. Baldwin grabbed 10 boards and contributed 8 points, graduate forward Mimi Collins scored 15 points to go with 10 boards, and senior guard Madison Hayes also scored 15 points to go along with 8 boards. 

Liberty started the second half on fire, hitting its first 4 shots and cutting its deficit to 3 at one point. The game remained within 5 until a 15-5 run for NC State that included 5 points from Brooks and 4 from Collins. The Pack held a 60-47 advantage going into the final 10 minutes. 

Following a lengthy break due to the rain delay, both teams started the quarter a combined 1 of 8 from the field. Liberty made another run to pull within 5 points, but the Wolfpack scored 12 of the final 16 points of the contest, including 5 points from Brooks. 

NC State also forced 7 turnovers in the fourth quarter. 

“We understood that they were a really good team, so we just made sure we were really aggressive with them and made them turn the ball over, made them put it on the floor, and I think we did a really good job with that,” Hayes said. 

The Wolfpack will play its next game Saturday, Dec. 16, in a 7 p.m. ET showdown with South Florida, the program’s first true road test of the season.