3/5/2021 basketball Edit

NC State star Elissa Cunane to face a familiar foe in Elizabeth Kitley

Justin H. Williams • TheWolfpackCentral

Staff Writer

NC State junior center Elissa Cunane will make a homecoming of sorts when the second-seeded Wolfpack tips off against seventh-seeded Virginia Tech Friday night at 6:00 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament.

Cunane is originally from Summerfield, N.C., a small town in the Triad region just north of Greensboro, the site of the league's tournament. She attended Northern Guilford High School, where she led the Nighthawks to back-to-back 3A women’s basketball state championships in 2017 and 2018.

“It’s exciting to go back to Greensboro,” Cunane said Wednesday. “It’s kind of my area, my city. I’ve been to the Coliseum so many times to see so many things, even going there to watch ACC Championships when I was a little kid.

“Although it looks different than last year, when I was able to go to my house and see my family and friends after the games, it still has the hometown feeling. I feel like I’m getting on the bus to go home today, and I’m ready to take care of business there.”

When Cunane makes what will be her third appearance competing in the ACC Tournament in Greensboro Coliseum Friday, she won’t be the only player on the court playing before a hometown crowd.

She’ll have a head-to-head matchup with another daughter of the Triad, Virginia Tech sophomore center Elizbeth Kitley.

NC State Wolfpack basketball Elissa Cunane — NC State's Elissa Cunane and Virginia Tech's Elizabeth Kitley both played for rival high schools in the Triad area and will meet again Friday night in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. (Photo Courtesy of Bob Leverone/HAECO Invitational)

Kitley, who is one of two ACC players to average a double-double this season, is also from Summerfield and played for Northern Guilford’s rival Northwest Guilford High. The 6-5 sophomore is third in the conference in both scoring average (18.5 points per game) and rebounding (10.7 rebounds per game).

Friday night won’t be the first time the two star centers have played against each other in Greensboro Coliseum.

Northern Guilford competes at the 3-A level and Northwest Guilford the 4-A, but the two rival schools typically find a way to meet each year for a non-conference contest.

Back in Cunane and Kitley’s playing days, their two high school teams met in consecutive championship games of the Haeco Invitational.

The Haeco Invitational, formerly the Timco Invitational, is an annual local holiday high school basketball tournament that started in 1976 and is now played in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex’s Fieldhouse, the home of the Charlotte Hornets’ G-League franchise the Greensboro Swarm.

Northwest Guilford won both meetings — 48-33 in 2016 and 65-47 in 2017 — but Cunane and Kitley were selected to the All-Tournament team each time with Kitley earning Tournament MVP honors in 2017.

Both schools went on to win the state championship at their respective levels those seasons.

Northern Guilford won its first women’s basketball state championship in school history in 2017 and repeated as state champions in 2018 during Cunane’s senior season. Kitley helped lead Northwest Guilford to back-to-back 4A state titles in 2017 and 2018.

Since then, the 6-5 centers have competed twice against each other during their college careers.

NC State won both of those meetings in 2019-20, and Cunane had two of her best career games at the college level.

The Wolfpack first defeated Virginia Tech 76-69 in Reynolds Coliseum on Jan. 2, 2020. Cunane led all scorers and tied her career-high with 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting. She also had nine rebounds, three assists, one block and one assist. Kitley had 11 points, three rebounds, one assist and a block in her college debut against her hometown foe.

NC State completed the season sweep against the Hokies last season with a 71-59 road win in Blacksburg one month later. Cunane led the Pack with a double-double, finishing with 17 points and 16 rebounds. She also performed well on the defensive end, shutting down Kitley to just two points on 1-of-9 shooting and five rebounds.

Cunane went on to earn her first unanimous first-team All-ACC selection and was named a third-team All-American by the Associated Press and the United States Basketball Writers Association in 20-19-20.

Kitley was honored as the ACC’s Freshman of the Year last season.

Virginia Tech Hokies basketball Elizabeth Kitley — Virginia Tech center Elizabeth Kitley scored a career-high 30 points in the Hokies' road loss to NC State on Jan. 24, 2021. (Courtesy of Matt Gentry, ACC Basketball)

This year, both were unanimous first-team All-ACC selections, but Friday night will be the first time Kitley has had to face Cunane since the 12-point loss in Cassell Coliseum one month before the Wolfpack won the 2020 ACC Tournament Championship.

Virginia Tech was one of two teams to hand No. 3 NC State a rare defeat this season, but the Hokies had the benefit of facing the Pack without its star center both times they played.

In the first meeting this year, the Wolfpack returned from a three-week COVID pause and had to outscore Virginia Tech 30-18 in the fourth quarter to squeak out an 89-87 home victory over the Hokies to remain undefeated at the time.

Virginia Tech got its revenge four days later in Blacksburg by handing then No. 2-ranked NC State its first loss of the season. In another nailbiter that featured a buzzer-beating three by Wolfpack sophomore center Camille Hobby to force overtime, the Hokies prevailed 83-71.

Cunane didn’t get to play in either game because she tested positive for COVID-19 the week prior and had to be in quarantine as outlined by the ACC’s protocols.

“It was really hard to sit out and watch my team play them back-to-back in such a short span of days,” Cunane said. “I was able to learn a lot about their players watching from the sideline as well as how our team was able to go up against them.”

Kitley was phenomenal in both games, finishing with a double-double in each meeting. The sophomore center had a career-high 30 points in the two-point loss in Raleigh and averaged 23.5 points and 12 rebounds per game during the regular-season series.

But this time, she’ll have to face last year’s ACC Tournament champions with its defensive MVP back on the court. Cunane, who was notably snubbed of a spot on the ACC All-Defensive team this season, is the only player in the ACC and one of 11 players nationally to make the 2021 Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year Watch List.

She's also one of two semifinalists from the conference along with ACC Player of the Year Dana Evans of Louisville for the 2021 Naismith Women's Player of the Year Award. Cunane's 15.6 points per game rank sixth in the ACC, and her eight rebounds per game are good for ninth in the conference.

“Playing a team three times, especially in the ACC, it’s going to be a tough matchup,” Cunane said Monday. “It’d be cool to play them, it almost seems like fate. The ACC Tournament being in Greensboro as well as me missing the games in the regular season..”