RALEIGH, NC – On Thursday night in Columbia, SC, NC State’s 8th women’s basketball team will face a more difficult challenge than any other.
The Pack will face South Carolina’s No. 1 team, which reached 32-1 in 2019-20 and spent the last 10 weeks of the season as the best ranked team in the country. This year’s Gamecocks iteration is so good, as South Carolina returns three starting players from that 2019-20 team.
For NC State, this will be the first game in the Pack against a top-ranked team from Moore. Wolfpack last played with a No. 1 team in the ACC Tournament in 2007, when Kay Yow’s team defeated Duke 70-65.
As a whole, NC State is 2-18 against the top-ranked teams in the show’s history, but Thursday night will be the first time Moore’s Pack will have a chance to take down first place.
“It’s a great opportunity,” said NC State coach Wes Moore. “Dawn Staley did an incredible job in building this program. They are having the nation’s number one recruiting class every year, so they have all the Americans stacked there in two or three places. It is a great challenge for us, but it is also an opportunity ”.
The state of NC was supposed to have several games outside the conference against Big Ten teams, but COVID-19 eliminated them all. Looking for a famous opponent, Moore and the Pack found South Carolina.
Now, Moore’s team will have a great opportunity against a program that won the national title in 2017 and only got better. It is a challenge for sure, but one that the NC State should face. In fact, it is a chance to grow, improve and build towards the ACC game.
“I think Coach Moore just wants us to play the best we can, to leave it all there and not get too short,” said junior striker Elissa Cunane. “I am ready for the challenge of playing against the best players in the country. I am very excited about my personal growth coming out of the game, and just to challenge what I can do. “
Perhaps the biggest challenge for NC State is Cunane’s confrontation with striker Aliyah Boston. There are few players in all college basketball more talented than Boston, who averaged 12.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game last year as a freshman.
These huge numbers have earned the honors of Boston’s National Freshman of the Year, as well as the Lisa Leslie Award for the best center in the country. She is a consensus preseason All-American, and she has averaged 11 points and 8.3 rebounds in three games this year.
“She is a great player,” said Cunane. She does a great job with quick turnaround moves, managing the court. She has a great shot at painting, as well as getting her own offensive rebounds and the offensive rebounds of others. It will definitely be a big task to protect it. It will definitely also be a team effort. I think it will be a big challenge for me. “
As Cunane said, keeping Boston will not just be about her. Facing a great talent becomes a team effort, something that teams playing at NC State learned quickly when facing Cunane. Now facing Boston, the pack will have to be all-in to stop it.
“It will take a whole team against Boston,” said Moore. “If you isolate her and Elissa there, I am concerned with problems and everything. We will have to do a good job helping whenever we can and trying to keep the ball out as long as we can.
“They are two of the main positions in the country, but only understanding that it is still South Carolina against the State of NC. Do not spoil this dispute so much that it is the only thing we will look at.”
Although Boston is the most talented player in South Carolina, she is certainly not the only player of caliber All-American. Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson are averaging more than 17 points per game this year, while Victoria Saxton and Laeticia Amihere are averaging close to a double-double.
Another challenge for NC State on Thursday night will be having to play a full game. While South Carolina played a few games played and has three players on average with more than 25 minutes per game, Wolfpack won two eliminations that saw match owners sitting in the fourth period.
Only Kai Crutchfield averages more than 21 minutes per game, but she is not concerned with the team’s conditioning. NC State has good depth to bring out of the bank and its beginners are ready for a complete tour.
“We feel really good,” said Crutchfield. “We are ready for that. We have been practicing very hard. We condition a lot when we come back from quarantine, so physically I think we’re ready. … I know that South Carolina is a great opponent, but we definitely have a little depth in our team this year. However, we will be ready to play as much as we need. “
The opportunity ahead of NC State is the greatest opportunity a team can have. Going out on the road to play against the best team in the country in front of 3,500 fans will be a great challenge and test for the Pack, but it is a state for which the NC is ready.
After all, Wolfpack is also very good.
“We are going to play in South Carolina, ”said Crutchfield. “They are a great team. I also believe that we are a great team, and we only have to act in attack and defense ”.