NC State women’s basketball team's lack of energy proves costly with another slow start in loss to No. 17 TCU

Wes Moore has seen it in all facets of his program. From practice to shootaround, and now to games, NC State hasn’t had an energy level on the floor to his liking. Instead of bouncing around with a jubilant liveliness, the Wolfpack’s body language has been the opposite. 

While some teams might be able to get by with that, the Pack’s gauntlet of a schedule has proved to expose that deficiency rather quickly. After all, the team has faced off with a trio of top-20 squads through its first four games. But, to this point, NC State hasn’t been able to get out of the starting blocks with a quick start. 

Instead of looking like Usain Bolt running the 100-meter dash in his prime, the Wolfpack has appeared to be walking through quicksand in the opening stanza of each of its last three games. Poor shooting starts against then-No. 18 USC (8-of-21) and Maine (3-of-18) led to different outcomes as the Trojans edged the Pack by 1 last Sunday in Charlotte, while NC State was able to overpower the Black Bears with its talent level alone on Tuesday night. 

But as No. 17 TCU arrived in Raleigh for a marquee tilt on Sunday afternoon, another rocky first-quarter shooting performance put the Wolfpack behind the curve in a hurry. And, well, the 1-of-13 shooting mark to start the contest proved costly as the Horned Frogs ran away with a 69-59 win to snap the Pack’s 24-game winning streak inside Reynolds Coliseum. 

“I feel like we’re a pretty good team, we have the skill set and we know how to play ball,” said freshman guard Ky’She Lunan, who scored a season-high 10 points off the bench in the defeat. “It’s just stepping up and playing as a team. I feel like our energy is the biggest deficit that we have right now.”

NC State wasn’t able to channel its fire to win in other aspects of the game at a consistent clip as its field goal percentage was just over zero. That didn’t help as TCU was able to shoot 42.6 percent from the field, including an 8-of-14 mark in the third quarter that blew the game open as the Wolfpack turned in a 3-of-15 total in the same period. 

Moore seemed concerned about his team’s approach to its enthusiasm on the court. It has shown in practice, but to appear in a top-20 clash of two likely NCAA Tournament squads? That was a little troublesome for the 13th-year coach. 

“We don’t have a whole lot of energy people on the team, I guess,” Moore said. “They’re a little bit more solemn or sometimes laid back. Neither one of those are good. We’ve got to have some energy.”

In past years, NC State was able to feed off star players like Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers, both of whom would rebound or defend at a high level when they weren’t shooting well on a particular day. But as the Wolfpack’s top three scorers — Zoe Brooks, Khamil Pierre and Zam Jones — combined to shoot 6-of-37 from the field en route to 14 total points against the Horned Frogs, it wasn’t able to find a spark big enough elsewhere to come out with its second ranked victory of the campaign.

The Wolfpack players have hung their heads, at times, when the shooting hasn’t gone their way instead of finding a way to turn up the heat on the defensive end, Moore said. The grizzled veteran of the coaching ranks knows that it’s a top priority for his team to fix as soon as possible.

“I don’t know if people are worrying too much about their own game and what’s happening instead of worrying about our team,” Moore said. “We’re the only ones that can fix it. We can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves. … No seniors, so we’ve got to have everybody step up a little bit.”

While it will take a collective effort to increase the energy level of all 11 players on the roster to turn the tide, NC State’s tough early-season slate was designed for this reason. Moore didn’t want to cruise through the nonconference with ease. He wanted to be tested — and exposed — before going into ACC play. 

That approach worked a year ago. The Wolfpack turned in a 4-3 start through the first seven games, including losses to No. 1 South Carolina, No. 7 LSU and an eventual Elite Eight team in TCU, before it won 20 of its next 21 to eventually claim the ACC regular-season title. Although there’s a precedent, Moore has repeatedly said his team has “a lot of work to do,” a phrase that reappeared after the loss to the Horned Frogs, to get back to that same form this season.

Finding a way to inject more energy and life into his lineup is of the utmost importance at this stage of the year. NC State needs that to be able to compete at the top of the ACC this season, and so far, it has a long way to go in that department. 

Sophomore center Tilda Trygger, who led the Pack with 15 points and added six rebounds against TCU, seemed to be in lock step with her head coach afterwards. 

“We need to get our energy up when we ain’t hitting shots, we need to do other stuff like rebounding, playing defense, and today we didn’t do enough of that,” Trygger said. “I think it starts with energy.”

Will the home loss to TCU, a team with 11 new players on its roster, get through to NC State in order to correct its energy problem? Maybe. Only time will tell, but Moore doesn’t have all the answers going into Wednesday night’s meeting with Coastal Carolina.

“It would [for] me, but heck we got beat last Sunday, too,” Moore said. “How many [losses] is it going to take? Our players talk all the time about being dogs, well what kind of dog are we? Are we a Chihuahua or are we a Doberman? Now is when you’ve got to come out fighting.”