NC State women’s hoops show tenacity in 54-46 win over No.1 South Carolina

There won’t be any instructional videos made on the offense Thursday night at Columbia, but do we care? We dont do. Because NC State got the upper hand over No.1 South Carolina – a team that hadn’t lost a game since November 2019 – in the home of the Gamecocks.

What a great victory for Wes Moore’s program. I don’t think anyone is shocked by this result, which is a credit to how good NC State is lately.

South Carolina won the first quarter, 12-9, and NC State won the second quarter, 12-8, to give the Wolfpack a 21-20 halftime advantage. These two teams really struggled to take shots, but both also played outstanding defense all night, and it was a grind-it-out affair for the full 40 minutes.

Kayla Jones was NC State’s MVP tonight, scoring 16 points on 6-13 shots, including a three-run 27-second remaining that pushed State’s lead two to five, essentially sealing the deal. She also had 12 boards. Elissa Cunane struggled against the size of South Carolina, finishing 3-13 on the pitch, but was 8-8 on the free throw line. This part of his game is still reliable.

The Pack’s defense limited South Carolina to 29 percent of two-man shots, and while the Gamecocks finished with an advantage on the offensive boards, they were just too imprecise for that advantage to matter. They were also just 4-11 on the free throw line, and in a game like this it hurt a lot.

State was slightly better than South Carolina in a few places to turn the tide and claim the huge road victory. In a competition between two tough teams, State was a bit more difficult. Let’s go get some ice cream.