NC State women’s basketball focused on improving defensive performance after pair of exhibition wins

GREENSBORO — NC State coach Wes Moore has a simple goal for his team each night: hold opposing teams to 30 points a half. If the Wolfpack can do that, it’s likely to win after averaging 76.9 points on the offensive end a year ago. 

But through the Pack’s two exhibition games against High Point and No. 10 Maryland this preseason, that hasn’t been executed to his liking. In both of those tilts, a pair of NC State wins, the Wolfpack allowed its opponent to roll in the second quarter as High Point scored 22, while Maryland posted 29 points in those periods. 

That seemed to irk Moore after the Pack knocked off the Terrapins 83-75 on Sunday afternoon at First Horizon Coliseum. 

“We’re not a very good defensive team,” Moore said as he reflected on Maryland’s 45 first-half points. “We’re not going to win many games doing that. High Point hurt us, and I thought Maryland hurt us. We’ve got to defend better. We’ve got to buy into it.”

NC State, which doesn’t boast a senior on its roster for the first time in Moore’s 13 seasons in Raleigh, is still working through having a younger squad than normal under its veteran coach. 

Defense appears to be the biggest area that Moore continues to harp on through the pair of exhibitions. The Wolfpack has struggled to defend 1-on-1 and when its players are beaten, the defensive rotations are late and have allowed the opposing teams to feast with easy shots on both the interior and with open 3-point attempts. 

Maryland proved that in the second quarter as it was 8-of-17 shooting with a 10-of-11 mark from the free throw line as it seemed to take control of the momentum in the frame. That came on the heels of High Point shooting 45.2 percent from the field, including 12 made 3-pointers, last week.

NC State did, however, correct some of its defensive woes in the final 20 minutes as it limited Maryland to a 29.7 percent mark from the field with just a 25 percent total from beyond the 3-point line. The Pack, which also forced eight second-half turnovers, forced the Terrapins to close the game with a 0-for-12 shooting total across the final 5:22 of the game to surge past on a 13-1 run.

Moore, a coach that tends to be hypercritical of what his team can fix on any given night, is glad to be able to learn from wins, but the film breakdowns from both exhibitions won’t be pretty over the next week before the Wolfpack opens the season with No. 8 Tennessee in Greensboro. 

“That’s the only good thing about this, y’all — we’ve got film now,” Moore said. “Hopefully they’ll listen, and when they see it a picture is worth 1,000 words. Hopefully they’ll realize that we have a long way to go.”

The Volunteers, who are a team that likes to run and gun from the outside with a stifling press, will likely be the toughest test of the Wolfpack to this point. And if NC State wants to begin the season in the win column, the Pack knows its defensive effort needs to improve — especially on the glass after Maryland hauled in 18 offensive rebounds. 

Junior guard Zoe Brooks, who is being looked towards as the Wolfpack’s leader inside the locker room this season, felt as though the team has to defend the rebounding battle a lot better in the regular season.

“We definitely have to defend better, rebound better and just box out,” Brooks said. “Tennessee is really athletic and tall, so I feel like the key to that game is defending and rebounding.”

Moore said NC State “has a whole lot of growing up to do” as it prepares for the 2025-26 season. Not only is a top-10 Tennessee on the horizon, but so is No. 18 USC and No. 17 TCU in two of the following three games after. 

The Wolfpack knows it has plenty to correct if it wants to compete for another Final Four as it seeks the program’s first national championship. That’s the end goal, of course, but as it stands now, Moore doesn’t feel like he has the No. 9 team in the nation after the Associated Press poll tabbed the Wolfpack with that label this preseason. 

“Long way to go. We’re way overrated right now,” Moore said. “All those ratings are based on what you did last year. We’ve got a lot to prove, and a brutal schedule coming up to try to prove it.”