On senior night inside Reynolds Coliseum, the No. 8 NC State women’s basketball team beat Syracuse 69-60, snapping a three-game home losing streak. The Wolfpack seems to have gotten back on track after hitting a tough speed bump over the past few weeks. Here are some of the key numbers from the Pack’s win.
347 — Combined games played by the Wolfpack’s seniors. Honored before the game in the annual senior night ceremony, guards Aislinn Konig, Grace Hunter and Kaila Ealey, and center Erika Cassell have a combined 15 years of experience at NC State and have racked up win after win after win.
31 — Days between home wins for NC State. Typically one of the best homecourt teams in the country, the Wolfpack had dropped three straight games inside Reynolds Coliseum prior to winning its only home game in the month of February.
9 — Number of players that scored for the Pack. The team was terrific in its ability to spread the ball out in the game. NC State finished with 17 assists on 25 made field goals, a 68% ratio. Konig finished with five assists, while junior forward Kayla Jones added four.
27 — Combined minutes played by star sophomore center Elissa Cunane, junior guard Kai Crutchfield and freshman wing Jakia Brown-Turner. The three usual starters came off the bench on senior night and ceded the majority of playing time to their senior teammates. Cunane finished with eight points on 2-for-3 shooting, Crutchfield scored a 3-pointer and Brown-Turner scored on her lone shot of the day, a mid-range jumper.
5 — Fouls committed in 11 minutes by Elissa Cunane. Despite seeing less time in the game than normal, due to senior night, Cunane still picked up foul after foul and eventually fouled out with a few minutes left. While not needed to win against a mediocre Syracuse team, Cunane will be needed in March, and cannot afford to allow this to become a trend.
14 — Rebounds hauled in by junior forward Kayla Jones, tying a career high. Jones has been maybe the Wolfpack’s best player over the last month and that didn’t change Thursday night. Jones
8 — Points off turnovers that NC State allowed. After the tough-to-swallow loss to Duke, in which the Blue Devils scored 23 points off of 16 Wolfpack turnovers, head coach Wes Moore was disappointed in the breakdown in transition defense by his team, and clearly corrected the issue in this game. The Wolfpack committed 18 turnovers, 10 more than Syracuse, but got back on defense and as a result, was not punished for its offensive carelessness.
36 — Shooting percentage of the Orange. In its last three losses, the Wolfpack allowed opponents to shoot 47% from the floor, but in its last two wins, the Pack is holding its opponents to 33% shooting from the same mark. The winning ways of the Wolfpack begin and end with its defense, an area that the team showed excellence in against the Orange.
Redshirt senior guard Grace Hunter takes a shot against Syracuse at Reynolds Coliseum on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Hunter scored 10 points and NC State won 69-60.
