4/3/2019 football Edit

Pack's season of triumph over adversity ends in the Sweet 16

Brian Rapp

The Wolfpacker contributor

Senior guard Kiara Leslie and the Wolfpack struggled with shooting Saturday against Iowa. (Brian Rapp)

For most of the final 13 games of this record-setting 2018-19 season, NC State’s women’s basketball team overcame obstacles and predictions of downfall, due to the loss of four injured players, to earn a second straight trip to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. A Wolfpack team hadn’t done that in back-to-back years since 1990-91.

But last Saturday in Greensboro, the Iowa Hawkeyes simply proved to be one obstacle the Pack could not surmount. Iowa (29-7), ranked No. 8 in the final AP Poll and seeded second in the Greensboro Regional, rode All-America senior post Megan Gustafson’s 27-point, 12-rebound effort, and a 54-percent shooting effort as a team, to end third-seeded NC State’s season, 79-61.

On a day when the Pack needed to be at its sharpest offensively, NC State suffered its second-worst shooting effort of the season, hitting just 34.8-percent (24 of 69) of its attempts.

One game after making 10 of 21 three-point attempts (47.6-percent, second best of the season) in its second-round win over Kentucky, the Pack managed just 4 treys in 18 attempts to tie its worst three-point accuracy for the year (22.2 percent).

“Iowa played a great game,” said disappointed head coach Wes Moore following the loss. “Gustafson, obviously, is an awesome player, and then I felt like the rest of the team really had a great game around her.

“When they’re hitting threes [the Hawkeyes went 7-of-18 from long range, including a perfect 3-for-3 in the fourth quarter], and she does what she does on the block, it’s a tough matchup.”

Moore and his staff were well aware of the monumental task Iowa presented them, considering that Gustafson, ESPNw’s national Player of the Year, came into the contest shooting an NCAA-leading 70-percent from the floor, and had the second-highest scoring average in the country, at 28 points a contest.

The game plan that NC State initially tried to execute was to play Gustafson man-up with freshman center Elissa Cunane, with immediate help every time the ball went to her inside, and to move Cunane around through several screens on offense to try to create imbalances.

The strategy worked — for all of five minutes. Gustafson picked up a foul just 30 seconds into the game trying to push through a screen, and Cunane scored twice inside after an opening three by sophomore guard Kai Crutchfield to give the Pack a 9-8 advantage with 5:04 left in the opening quarter.

That would be NC State’s last lead of the game. Iowa ended the period on a 7-1 run for a 16-11 lead, in what proved to be the Hawkeyes lowest shooting quarter of the day. Iowa shot no worse than 53 percent in any of the remaining three periods.

Down 37-24 at halftime (after going 9-for-28), mainly due to Cunane’s sitting out six minutes after picking up her second foul late in the first quarter, the Pack finally came to life midway through the third period.

Trailing by 13, 41-28, the Pack went on a 10-2 run over the next four minutes, sparked by four points each from Cunane and senior Kiara Leslie and a fast-break layup by junior guard Ace Konig, to cut the gap to five, 43-38, with 4:43 to play in the period.

But over the next minute, on three straight possessions, the Pack missed two layups and a short jumper. The Hawkeyes went on another run that ballooned the lead back to 12 (56-44) to end the period, and the Pack never got any closer.

“I was very disappointed in the first half,” Moore commented. “That didn’t look like our team. But the second half, we made a nice run. Then we came down about four or five times in a row, and had some decent looks, and the ball just didn’t go in.

“I thought that was our chance to really put some pressure on them and maybe get over the top, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

“They didn’t do anything defensively that we hadn’t seen this year,” said Leslie, who led NC State with 16 points, but was 6-for-18 from the floor in her lowest scoring NCAA Tournament game in her two years with the Pack. “The ball just didn’t fall for us today.”

Cunane, who also saw her share of double-teams inside, still managed 14 points and a team-high 11 boards but also had an off night (6 for 19).

Senior forward DD Rogers (12 points) and Konig (10) were the other players in double figures.

Iowa went on to the regional final Monday night, falling to overall tournament No. 1 seed (and No. 1-ranked) Baylor, 85-53.

NC State ends at 28-6, the second-most wins in program history, including a 21-game win streak that is its longest ever — and with many wondering just what might have been if the Pack could have stayed healthy.

Still, there were few tears in the locker room afterwards – perhaps because the accomplishments of this season, against odds that most thought would be too much to overcome, far outweighed one day of disappointment.

“You have to be really proud of these players and all they have been through,” Moore said.

“They could have really got down and hung their heads on four occasions [when Kaila Ealey, Grace Hunter, Armani Hawkins and Erika Cassell all fell to knee injuries], and they didn’t. They bounced right back and kept coming, and I’m proud of that.”

“Even with the players we lost, we were still a team,” Cunane added. “We still had NC State on our jerseys, we still had to play for that. And the players who were injured were still around us and motivating us.”

“I’m grateful to Coach Moore for giving me the opportunity to come back home and play in front of my family,” said Leslie, who transferred from Maryland two years ago to finish her career in Raleigh.

“I’ll remember the streak and making the Sweet 16 my senior year — not a lot of teams get to do that.”

NOTES:

• Ace Konig’s two three-point makes in the game gave her 93 for the season, breaking the single-season record the junior guard set a year ago with 91.

• Kiara Leslie was named an Honorable Mention All-American by the AP earlier this week. The Holly Springs native led the Pack in scoring with 15.9 points per game while also averaging 7.2 rebounds a contest.

She scored 10 or more points in a game 31 times, 20 or more nine times and in the 30s twice, including a career-high 31 at Boston College. She also recorded 10 double-doubles.

Leslie was also named first team All-ACC and to the All-ACC Defensive Team. She joins Chasity Melvin (1997), Summer Erb (1999 and 2000), Carisse Moody (2001) and Markeisha Gatling (2014) as the only other NC State players to earn All-America Honorable Mention.

• Leslie was also one of eight players to be selected to compete in the State Farm College Slam Dunk and Three-Point Championship in Minneapolis this Thursday. The event will be televised on ESPN as part of activities preceding the men’s NCAA Championship.

• NC State has some promising recruits coming in next year. Jakia Brown-Turner, a 6-foot wing from Bishop McNamara High in Forestville, Md., was NC State’s first signee to participate in the McDonald’s All-American game since Amber White in 2006. She was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Maryland after averaging 16.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.6 assists per game for a 31-4 Bishop McNamara team, and she was also picked for the Jordan Brand Classic All-American Game in Las Vegas April 20.

Camille Hobby, a 6-foot-3 center from Jacksonville, Fla., was named Miss Basketball in Florida after averaging 17.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.8 steals per game for Neuse High, which went 30-2 and reached the Class 7A state title game.

Jada Boyd, a 6-foot-2 wing from Appomattox (Va.) Regional Governor’s School was named the Class 1 Girl’s Player of the Year. Boyd, who scored 52 points in a regional playoff game this season, averaged 33.2 points per game as a senior and finished her career averaging 28.1 points per game. She scored 2,725 career points.

Kendal Moore, a 5-foot-6 guard, averaged 24.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.7 steals per game for Pine Forest High in Fayetteville, N.C. She was named second-team all-state and picked to play for the North Carolina squad in the Carolinas Classic All-Star Game in Wilmington, N.C., March 23.