Led by sophomore guard Aziaha James’ career-high 19 points, No. 10 NC State women’s basketball cruised past the unranked Mount Saint Mary’s Mountaineers 86-38 on Sunday, Nov. 13.
Despite the Pack’s (3-0) large margin of victory, the Mountaineers (0-3) proved able to keep pace with the red-and-white throughout most of the first quarter. Unlike the first couple of teams that NC State faced in its opening games of the season, Mount St. Mary’s didn’t play scared. The Mountaineers aggressively attacked NC State’s strong defense and effectively slowed down the Pack’s offensive production.
However, NC State went on a 7-0 run to close out the first quarter with a more comfortable lead, 20-9. The red-and-white came out swinging in the second quarter, turning that 7-0 run into a 16-0 run and setting the tone for the remainder of the contest.
As the game progressed, the Mountaineers increasingly relied on their 3-point shooting to keep them in the game but continued to fall short. Overall, the Mountaineers shot 5-34 from beyond the arc compared to the Pack’s 8-20.
At the half, NC State led 42-13. In the third quarter, the Mountaineers were once again able to keep pace with the Pack scoring-wise, as they were only outscored by two points 18-16. NC State worked to maintain its massive lead as multiple players contributed to the strong performance.
“It was a good team win,” said head coach Wes Moore. “I still see a lot of things that we’re gonna have to do better here real quickly coming up, or we’re gonna get exposed. Still a long way to go, but again, a good team win and will hopefully keep getting better.”
With a slew of games against tough opponents rapidly approaching, the Pack will look to clean up the missed layups and sloppy passes. The team was able to get away with these errors against the Mountaineers, but against a team like UConn, who it’ll play on Sunday, Nov. 20, the Pack won’t be able to recover so easily.
Senior wing Jakia Brown-Turner hit a special milestone in the third quarter as she tallied her 1,000th point of her collegiate career on a jumper from the short corner. The veteran player has been a huge part of the Wolfpack’s success these past few years and still has a lot of influence on the court early in this season as she tallied 11 rebounds and shot 100% from the free throw line this game.
“It feels great,” Brown-Turner said. “I’ve never even thought of scoring this many points, but I’m just happy that my team has helped me get to this point. I’m so excited.”
NC State outscored Mount St. Mary’s 26-9 in the fourth quarter to close out the contest. Despite getting only eight minutes of playing time in the first half, James put on a strong showing to finish out the game, scoring 12 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter.
“As a team, you don’t really know the roles,” James said. “You just focus on the game. It is not about paying attention to playing time, but instead helping the team win.”
The Wolfpack will stay in Reynolds Coliseum for one more game against UNC-Charlotte on Wednesday, Nov. 16 before entering a five-game away stretch.
