CHAPEL HILL – The NC State women’s basketball team (24-3, 11-3 ACC) played the UNC-Chapel Hill Tar Heels (17-12, 8-7 ACC) in a heavily-contested nailbiter that the Pack won 74-69 in Carmichael Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Graduate guard Kiara Leslie led the Wolfpack in scoring with 21 points, while sophomore forward Kayla Jones finished with the second-highest point total for the Pack, with 14 points, which ties a career high. Jones’ career-high 14 points were scored in the Pack’s most recent win over Wake Forest, giving her a productive two-game stretch.
“[Jones] is my player of the game,” head coach Wes Moore said. “Because with [Leslie], 21 points and 10 rebounds, it’s not fair but we’ve come to expect that from her but for [Jones] to come in an do what she did; the two big 3s but more importantly made the free throws down the stretch.”
Jones came into the game with senior forward DD Rogers coming out of the game due to foul trouble and hit two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter while shooting 6 for 6 from the free-throw line after only shooting 11 total free throws before in her career.
“Me and Kiara, we shoot before every practice,” Jones said. “And the coaches tell me to keep my confidence high.”
While the Pack and the Tar Heels each had 19 personal fouls called, the Pack had just one player foul out, sophomore guard Kai Crutchfield. Freshman center Elissa Cunane, Rogers and Leslie each had four fouls. The number of fouls accrued on each key player on the Pack forced Moore to manage his lineup accordingly. This lineup change comes after already having lost four players due to season-ending injuries.
“For each injury, we have a 24-hour mourning period,” Moore said. “Then the second day I come in and say ‘Okay y’all, our expectations haven’t changed, we still have a chance to be really good.’ And hopefully wins like on the road at Syracuse and on the road today gives them confidence and they realize we can get this done if we keep working and we keep getting better.”
Rogers only played 25 minutes, however; she notched eight points and 11 rebounds in the game, and stole a critical inbounding pass to seal the win for the Pack.
Chapel Hill guard Paris Kea was the star of the game for the Tar Heels, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot in her futile effort to bury the Pack. Kea finished with 32 points on 11-for-17 shooting. The Pack was able to hold Kea off late, as she missed late free throws to help the Pack secure the victory.
The first half of the game was tightly contested, with both teams being nearly equal in field goal percentage, rebounds, turnovers, fouls and assists. However, the Tar Heels picked up three steals and shot 31.3 percent from beyond the arc while the Pack shot just 18.2 percent from the same distance on five fewer shots.
However, mid-way through the third quarter, the momentum swung to the Pack as it forced three turnovers in the span of two and a half minutes and scored 10 straight to spark an 18-9 run. Despite this, Chapel Hill stormed back in the fourth quarter to tie the game and was outscoring the Pack for most of the half.
Freshman center Elissa Cunane was less involved early than she was in games like the one against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and finished the first half with just three points on 1-of-4 shooting with two turnovers.
The Pack was able to overcome a tightly-contested matchup and clean up the errors it made in the first half to get revenge on the Tar Heels, who handed the Pack its first loss of the season.
“We’ve got winners,” Moore said. “We recruit really high character kids and they’re gonna work and they’re gonna keep battling. They have had to overcome a lot of adversity this year and I’m proud of them for that.”
The Pack will next travel to face No. 4 Louisville Thursday.
Sophomore forward Kayla Jones shoots the ball during the game against UNC-Chapel Hill on Sunday, Feb. 24 at Carmichael Arena. The Wolfpack beat the Tarheels 74-69.
