NC State’s women’s basketball team heads to Louisville tonight to face the No.9-ranked Cardinals hoping to pull themselves out of a shooting slump that has plagued them the last three outings – and contributed to an upset this past Sunday to start the second half of the 16-game ACC schedule.
The Wolfpack (16-6, 6-3 ACC) entered Sunday’s game against a North Carolina team that was 1-7 in conference play and full of momentum. NCSU was ranked No. 18 in The Associated Press poll, tied for third in the conference with Louisville (both 6-2 at that point) and riding a three-game winning streak. That included a 55-52 victory over Duke on Jan. 15 that was the Pack’s third consecutive win over the Blue Devils – something that hadn’t happened since the 1995-96 seasons.
Ever since the first quarter of the Duke game, when the Pack shot a sizzling 9-for-15 (60 percent, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range) en route to a 24-15 lead, the baskets have been harder to come by. The Wolfpack finished scoring just 31 points the final three periods on 11-of-36 accuracy (31 percent) and was 0-for-12 from three. NC State then failed to shoot better than 34 percent in a 65-53 closer-than-expected win over ACC's last-place Clemson on Jan. 22 and a 55-42 decision over Pitt on Jan. 26.
“We’ve struggled a bit,” NCSU head coach Wes Moore said following the win over the Panthers. “Our kids have done a pretty nice job defensively. We’ve been playing well as a team, with help and rotation, so we’re doing some good things. I still feel we’re too good of a shooting team to be struggling.
"We’ve got to knock down some shots and execute better. We’ve protected the home court so far, but now that we’re going back on the road we have to play a lot better.”
The Tar Heels, who came into Sunday’s game on a five-game ACC losing streak, allowed an early 3-0 NC State lead on fifth-year senior guard Dominique Wilson’s opening trey – then proceeded to outscore the Pack 22-7 the remainder of the period, and never looked back. The Heels, behind a 53 percent (29 of 55) overall shooting effort, led by as many as 18 points and withstood a frantic Pack rally in the fourth quarter that cut the lead to five, before back-to-back treys by junior guard Jamie Cherry (a season-high 23 points) ended the threat and preserved North Carolina’s 83-70 victory . The 13 points was the Wolfpack's second-biggest margin of defeat this season, after a 67-50 loss to Kansas State in the Paradise Jam in November.
NC State, which entered the game allowing opponents to shoot just 27.7 percent from long range (third-best in the ACC), surrendered a program record-tying 14 three-point baskets (on 24 attempts) to the Heels. Cherry was 6 for 9 from the arc, while sophomore teammate Stephanie Watts hit 5 of 10 attempts en route to 19 points.
“I think their transition,” Moore answered when asked how UNC was able to find so many open three-point attempts. “You look at the stats, they outscored us 27-6 on fast-break points, that’s the ball game right there.
“Give Carolina a lot of credit. They shot unbelievably well, they pushed the tempo, got down the floor and found the open people. They play four guards, so it’s a little different – you don’t have posts running to the block as much. You have four people spotted up and spread out on the floor. We just didn’t do a good job at times of matching up and getting back to them.
"If one person’s late, they have four people out there who can knock down the three, and they did a good job of finding them.”
NC State suffered its third conference loss, which evened its road conference mark at 2-2, despite putting four players in double figures. Wilson finished with a team-high 18, followed by senior guard Miah Spencer’s 15, senior forward Jenn Mathurin’s 13 and junior post Chelsea Nelson’s 11). NCSU forced 24 UNC turnovers to the Pack’s 16 and out-rebounded North Carolina 41-39, including an 18-6 advantage on the offensive boards. Aside from Nelson’s 5-for-9 accuracy, NC State’s other four starters were a combined 18 for 58 (31 percent).
“No,” replied Spencer when asked if she had any idea of what was causing the Pack’s recent shooting woes. “We’ve just got to get back in the gym, keep doing the things we’ve been doing, keep working hard.”
NC State, after road games with the Cardinals and Georgia Tech on Feb. 9, play three of its final five regular-season games at home, including a rematch with the Tar Heels on Feb. 23, which is both Senior Night and NC State’s annual Hoops4Hope benefit game for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
“We’ve been a pretty good team against transition,” Moore noted Sunday, “and they (UNC) have been a very good transition team, so today they won that battle. We have to make sure we do a better job next time we see them.”
Pack Missing Key Contributor
A contributing factor to the Pack’s recent shooting struggles could be the loss of freshman standout guard Aislinn “Ace” Konig.
As of Jan. 18, Konig was second on the team in three-point accuracy (30 for 79, 38 percent) and third in overall accuracy (52 for 120, 43.3 percent) for players with a minimum of 100 attempts.
Konig suffered a stress fracture in her foot during a final practice before the Pack’s 65-50 win at Wake Forest on Jan. 19.
“It’ll probably be two more weeks before we have a better idea where she’s at,” Moore said following the Pitt game on Jan. 26. “She had surgery (Jan. 22), has got the cast off and is wearing a boot.”
The coach said that the best-case scenario is for Konig to be healed enough to be able to see some playing time in one of the team’s final regular-season games at the end of February, so she would be available when the ACC Tournament gets under way in Conway, S.C. on March 1.
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