NC State women's basketball launches into challenging home stand
No. 7 NC State (18-2, 6-2 ACC) lost consecutive conference road games against Virginia Tech and Miami earlier this month. The Wolfpack bounced back in authoritative fashion with an undefeated road trip to Clemson and Boston College.
With two more conference wins added to the resume by a combined 43 points, the program solidified its spot in the ACC standing’s top five. NC State defeated Boston College 82-61, shot 50 percent from the field and only turned the ball over 3 times in the second half.
The Wolfpack’s reward for its recent impressive run of form? A three-game home stand against three ranked opponents. From Feb. 1 to Feb. 8, No. 20 North Carolina, No. 18 Louisville and No. 19 Virginia Tech will all visit NC State.
“It will be good to be home, but we’re going to have to take advantage of it and try to hold serve, and it will not be easy,” head coach Wes Moore told WKNC after the game.
This will be the Wolfpack’s second time playing the Hokies after falling in the final seconds on the road Jan. 7, and it will be the program’s first chance to face off against the Tar Heels and the Cardinals. In addition to their AP Poll rankings, those teams make up three of the top four schools in the ACC standings.
NC State heads into that challenging stretch of the schedule with plenty of momentum thanks to its recent three-game winning streak. Each of the Wolfpack’s matchups during that stretch have been decided by 15 or more points.
Against Boston College, NC State out-rebounded the Eagles by 12 and scored 36 more points in the paint than the home team.
The Wolfpack originally scheduled its shoot around for 7:30 a.m. on game day. Moore was up by 5 because he could not sleep, but the head coach decided to let the team sleep in and see what happened.
“We went with hoping we would have energy,” Moore said. “For the most part, I thought we did that. The players will like it because we might feel comfortable doing that more in the future, so they’re all happy. They get more sleep, maybe.”
Aside from some struggles in transition, the Wolfpack head coach was happy with how his team handled a new defensive wrinkle as well. NC State does not play a ton of zone, but the visitors deployed that look against the Eagles. Moore said the program did “a pretty good job for having not played it much.”
Moore played 4 of his 5 starters 31 or more minutes. Freshman guard Zoe Brooks was the only member of the Pack to play more than 8 minutes off the bench. The head coach said he likes to stick with the lineup that is working and not risk a momentum swing, but he also acknowledged that he probably needs to expand the rotation.
“I probably do that to a fault, so I need to do a better job of rotating them in there some,” Moore said.
NC State’s winning streak sets up a ranked showdown with UNC for Thursday at 8 p.m.. The Tar Heels are 7-2 in the ACC after a loss to Virginia Sunday.
Moore shared a clear message to the Wolfpack’s sold-out Reynolds Coliseum crowd.
“I think someone called our fans classless?” Moore said. “Thursday night, I hope we’re real classless. I hope we bring the heat.”
