Challenges mount for NC State women's basketball

With just three weeks remaining in the regular season, NC State’s women’s basketball team faces possibly its biggest challenge in coach Wes Moore’s six-year tenure.

The No. 12-ranked Pack (21-2 overall, 8-2 in ACC games) is coming off back-to-back losses, its first of the year, and will face 16th-ranked Syracuse (18-5 overall, 7-3 ACC), winner of four of the last five meetings with the Pack, tonight in New York.

The game is the second in a three-game span of ranked opponents for NC State, which returns home Monday evening to host defending national champ and sixth-ranked Notre Dame in the 14th annual Play4Kay cancer research benefit. The sold-out game will be televised at 7:00 p.m. on ESPN2.

Florida State, currently ranked No. 21, outlasted NC State with a 75-70 win in Tallahassee on Feb. 7.

Only one of NC State’s record-breaking 21 consecutive wins to start the year came against a ranked opponent (No. 24 Michigan State in November), and none of the Pack’s eight straight ACC victories came against anyone in the top 25 in either the AP or USA Today/Coaches polls.

Beside the Seminoles, Orange and Irish, the Pack still face a visit to No. 2-ranked Louisville (which defeated UConn last week) on Feb. 28 and No. 20 Miami in the regular-season finale on March 3. The Pack must also travel to Chapel Hill for its second game of the year against a North Carolina squad that ended NC State’s 21-game winning streak on Feb. 3 with a 64-51 upset in Raleigh.

“This is a tough stretch,” Moore acknowledged, “but we’re hanging in there, doing the best we can. We have to keep trying to get better.

“This is the time of year when everyone is improving, trying to play their best ball to get ready for the tournament. We just have to make better decisions.”

Complicating the Pack’s task is its worst injury situation in eight years, a rash of ailments that has left the team with just 10 healthy players.

The team lost returning redshirt junior point guard Kaila Ealey prior to the start of the season with a torn meniscus in practice. Her replacement, Charlotte transfer Grace Hunter, was the team’s leading scorer (14.6 points per game) and third leading rebounder during NC State’s 13-0 non-conference season before suffering a season-ending ACL tear in the Pack’s ACC-opening 63-51 win over Duke on Jan. 3.

One week later, in a 63-34 home win against Pitt, senior guard Armani Hawkins suffered a career-ending knee injury, reducing NC State’s perimeter group to starters Kiara Leslie and Ace Konig, former backup Kai Crutchfield (who became a starter) and former walk-on Katie Wadsworth.

Last Thursday in Tallahassee, junior starting forward Erika Cassell, a 52-percent shooter averaging 8.3 points and 5.2 rebounds per conference outing, was also lost for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.

Her loss leaves freshman post Elissa Cunane as the likely replacement in the starting five, with sophomore Kayla Jones and freshmen Jada Rice and Esra McGoldrick -— neither of whom have seen more than four minutes of action per game this season — as NC State’s remaining depth on the bench.

“We’re just trying to stay as positive as we can for each other,” senior forward DD Rogers said when asked how the team is coping with the situation.

“One of our assistant coaches told us that the year the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship, they had the most touches [chest bumps, high fives, etc.] in the league. We’re looking at that, praising each other and helping each other stay positive.”

“I hope the success we’ve had so far will give them confidence going forward,” Moore said following the loss to the Tar Heels. “We have to find a way to get back to having some fun and energy out there.”

Offensive Letdown, Turnovers Plague Pack Against Heels, ’Noles

North Carolina entered the Feb. 3 game against NC State in Raleigh just 4-4 in ACC games (13-9 overall) and unranked, but held the Pack to its lowest scoring output and worst shooting game (16 of 54, 29.6-percent) of the season so far and outrebounded NC State 42-40 in its 13-point win.

“I thought we did a decent job defensively against a team with a lot of weapons,” Moore said, “but I’m more concerned about us just scoring 51.

“The last few games [a 54-51 win over Clemson and a 68-60 victory at Georgia Tech] we haven’t been quite as efficient offensively — we’ve been stagnant.

“At times, I thought we stood around against their zone, and I need to do a better job of putting players in position to get better looks.”

Turnovers have also been a problem. Though the Pack’s season average of 14 per game hasn’t changed markedly in ACC games, it’s still two more per game than opponents.

The turnover margin was 14-5 in the loss to North Carolina and 16-8 at Florida State, with the Seminoles scor 23 points off State’s miscues.

The Pack improved its scoring output in Tallahassee, hitting 42 percent (26 of 61) of its shots against the Seminoles and taking a 65-62 lead with three minutes left — only to have FSU reel off 10 straight points.

The Pack fought back to within two, 72-70, on a Crutchfield three-point shot with less than 30 seconds to play, and had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead before a turnover in the final 20 seconds sealed the win for the ‘Noles.

“The effort [at FSU] was better in a lot of ways, but we still have to take better care of the ball and do a better job defensively,” Moore said.

“We held them to 29 points at the half and then gave up 46 the second half. We got beat off the dribble too much, and we need to do a better job helping out. And we’re trying to push tempo a little bit, trying to get some easy buckets in transition, but it’s tough when you have a lot of people playing a lot of minutes.”

Four of NC State’s five starters through the Florida State game were averaging over 30 minutes an ACC contest, led by Konig’s 38.5 minutes per-game average.

“You just have to accept the fact you’re going to be out there,” said Rogers, who’s averaging 32 minutes a contest compared to just 18 minutes per non-conference outing. “It’s a mental thing, just focusing in, caching a second wind.”

Pack Hopes to Repeat Irish Upset In Play4Kay Game

Monday’s nationally televised game against Notre Dame will be the first time in the 14-year history of the annual benefit for cancer research and treatment that the Pack will face a defending national champion in the contest.

The Irish come into the game 22-3 (as of today) and 9-2 in ACC play, tied with Miami for second behind conference-leading (10-1) Louisville and a half-game ahead of NC State, currently fourth at 8-2.

Notre Dame leads the ACC in scoring average (86.8 points per game), while NC State still has the conference’s best defense, allowing opponents just 56.5 points per contest.

Three of the Irish’ five starters are among the top-25 scorers in ACC games, led by senior guard Arike Ogunbowale who is averaging 17.8 points per game — fifth best in the conference.

Pack guard Kiara Leslie is the only NC State player among the conference leaders for ACC games, averaging 16.9 points per game (seventh).

NC State is 6-7 in the Play4Kay (formerly Hoops4Hope) game since it’s creation in 2006 and will be trying to put together back-to-back wins for the first time since 2010, after its 74-61 victory over Wake Forest last year. One positive omen for the Pack: this will be Notre Dame’s first visit to Raleigh since NC State stunned the then No. 2-ranked Irish 70-62 in December 2016.

Notes

• Graduate guard Kiara Leslie was added to the watch list for the 2018-19 Wade Trophy, presented annually by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to the player voted the best in college basketball.

• NC State was one of the 16 teams ranked in the first pre-tournament seeding by the NCAA, released this past Monday. The Pack was listed as a No. 2 seed among the top 16, along with Oregon, Iowa and Gonzaga.