3/3/2020 basketball Edit

Wolfpack women not looking ahead entering the ACC Tournament

Justin H. Williams

The Wolfpacker contributor

The ACC Women’s Basketball tournament begins in Greensboro Wednesday, but NC State won’t play its first game until Friday evening.

The No. 10-ranked Wolfpack (24-4, 14-4 ACC) finished the regular season as the conference runner-up behind ACC regular-season champion and nationally-ranked No. 4 Louisville. Earning the No. 2 seed, the Wolfpack will receive a double-bye in the tournament and will face either No. 7 seed Georgia Tech, No. 10 Notre Dame or No. 15 Pittsburgh in its first game.

Notre Dame will play Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The winner of that game will advance to play Georgia Tech on Thursday.

NC State women's basketball coach Wes Moore points on the sideline. — Head coach Wes Moore and the Pack will begin ACC Tournament play Friday. (Associated Press)

NC State will tip off on Friday at 6 p.m. in what will be a quarterfinal game. No matter the opponent, head coach Wes Moore insisted the team is not looking ahead of itself.

“You can’t look that far ahead. We’ll focus on our first game, we don’t even know who that’s going to be yet,” said Moore. “Until we find out for sure, we can’t do a whole lot of planning.

"We can work on some basic things. Notre Dame’s going to play zone. Georgia Tech is going to switch a lot in their man-to-man. We’ll try to work on those things a little bit, but until we know for sure it will mostly be general preparation.”

The tournament bracket sets up a potential revenge tour for the Pack. In three days, NC State could face all three of its home conference losses on the path to an ACC Championship.

Georgia Tech, who NC State lost to 65-61 in Reynolds on Feb. 16, will be the favorite, based on seeding, to face the Pack in its first game on Friday.

If NC State wins to advance to the semifinals Saturday, a chalk bracket would produce a third meeting this season with the No. 3 seed Duke. The Wolfpack took the first game in Cameron Indoor Stadium 63-60 on Feb. 2, but the Blue Devils returned the favor in Raleigh 70-65 on Feb. 24 in the Play4Kay game.

If NC State then reaches the conference championship game, it is most likely to face the No. 1 seed Louisville. The Cardinals snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Pack in the only meeting between the two this year, a 66-59 loss in Reynolds Coliseum on Feb. 13.

“I would say less revenge and more redemption,” said senior guard Aislinn “Ace” Konig when asked about seeking revenge in Greensboro. “I think we didn’t play up to our capacity in those games, and we missed out on big opportunities to get those wins.

"I would see it as redemption, really being able to show who we are.”

Konig, a second-team All-ACC selection this season, and junior forward Kayla Jones will assume leadership roles in March for a team filled with young players in feature roles.

“No game is going to be easy,” said Jones when asked about what she’s telling the younger players. “It’s going to be a dogfight every game. The three games that we will have, we know we have to bring energy, intensity and we have to go hard against any team we play.”

Konig, along with fellow seniors Grace Hunter, Erika Cassell and Kaila Ealey, will be playing in their last ACC Tournament in a Wolfpack jersey. After a mid-February slump led to three losses in four games, the seniors helped the Pack win its final two games of the season, including a 69-60 Senior Night victory over Syracuse.

“It's our last shot to make an impact here at NC State, and we’re excited to have another opportunity,” said Konig. “I think we have a lot of potential on this team to continue to grow and play well. It’s very exciting to have all these things coming together right before the postseason.”

The other NC State players to earn All-ACC honors represent the Pack’s young core this season. Averaging a double-double with 16.5 points per game and 10 rebounds per game, sophomore Elissa Cunane was named first-team All-ACC. Wing Jakia Brown-Turner and forward Jada Boyd were both selected to the All-ACC Freshman team.

“It’s exciting to have those two freshmen and also Elissa being All-ACC as a sophomore,” said Moore. “We have a good young nucleus. We still need to add some pieces, but it's exciting to have those three for sure.”