NC State’s women’s basketball team defeated South Alabama at Reynolds Coliseum 71-50 Friday night, with three Wolfpack players scoring double-digit points.
NC State’s (4-0) offense struggled early, shooting 1 for 5 and having three turnovers in the first three minutes of the game taking an early 5-3 deficit to the Jaguars (1-1), the Wolfpack’s first time being behind on the scoreboard this season.
NC State would hit three of its next five shots in the game, tying it back up and then falling behind again with just under six minutes played in the game. After the official timeout, however, NC State would take its first lead of the game at 12-11 after a layup by junior forward DD Rogers.
The Wolfpack struggled early on defense, failing to close out on open shooters for the Jaguars, giving them lots of open shots that could have buried the Pack early if they were hit.
“Wasn’t very good,” head coach Wes Moore said. “We kept running into picks; that was the big part of it. We’re supposed to be trying to deny reversals; we didn’t do that very well. We were supposed to be rotating, a lot of things, a lot of fans and friends they see the shot going in and they think ‘Oh boy, had a great game,’ but as coaches we will go back and watch the film and you know what you work on for a couple of months. Your expectations are a little different, so our closeouts were not very good; that’s something we work on every day so it’s disappointing.”
Senior forward Chelsea Nelson echoed Moore’s statement.
“I felt like we had a lot of trouble with [our defense],” Nelson said. “We were playing a certain type of defense and we didn’t do as well as closing out to the shooters and helping. And we weren’t really on our toes. We weren’t as aware as we should be.”
After the first quarter, the Wolfpack was up 17-16 as both teams struggled offensively going 12 for 37 combined and committing seven turnovers.
NC State started off the second quarter with an 11-3 run where the Pack shot 50 percent to take a 28-19 lead. Sophomore guard Aislinn Konig lead the way with 11 points, while redshirt junior Kiara Leslie had four assists off the bench.
At the end of the half NC State had a 34-22 lead with a 34 field goal shooting percentage. Konig led the Pack with 11 points and Leslie chipped in 5 points, three assists and nine rebounds.
The beginning of the third quarter was a lot like the beginning of the first as both teams once again struggled to score, shooting a combined 11 of 31.
After three quarters NC State was up 50-34, with Konig leading the Wolfpack in both points with 13 and assists with four; she also had four rebounds.
The Wolfpack was just 2 for 6 on free throws in the third quarter; the rest of the night wasn’t much of an improvement as the Pack finished 13 for 24 on free throws.
“That’s something I mentioned to them,” Moore said. “They will come in for treatment tomorrow; they are going to go out there and shoot some free throws. Free throws are a tough thing. If you talk too much about them, then it gets in your head and it’s contagious. Also, we got a couple players missing a couple early and now everybody starts pressing. If you have a couple players step up, hit a few early it seems to be contagious and spread a little bit; that’s an area of concern. In a close game that’s going to haunt you.”
The Pack had by far its best shooting in the fourth quarter, going 7 for 15 on field goals and scoring a game-high 21 points as it pulled away from South Alabama.
The Pack took both good and bad pointers from this match to use towards future games.
“Our defense,” Nelson said “Being more perfect with our push defense and denying the reversals and knowing when our girl is going up, talking on defense to let our teammates know when there are screens. I think we rebounded okay. They were pretty close in rebounds but we had a lot of offensive rebounds and we’ve been looking to improve on that a lot.”
NC State will play Old Dominion Monday in Norfolk, Virginia at 7 p.m.
Sophomore forward Erika Cassell shoots the ball into the net at the N.C. State V. University of Southern Alabama women's basketball game in Reynolds Coliseum on Friday, Nov. 8. The Wolfpack won 71-50 and Cassell ended the game with 2 field goals and 4 field goal assists.
