FanPost

WBB: N. C. State Crushes Wake's NCAA Hopes?

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Jakia and Kayla

Jakia and Kayla. Where would we be without them? Photo Sbas.

State (14-2; 9-2) for sure put a damper on Wake's hope to be in the big dance with their 66-47 win at Wake (11-9; 8-8). For the game, State led 26-24 with just over five minutes left in the first half. Wake only scored 2 more points in the half after that as State went on a run to lead 39-26 at the half. State outscored Wake 21-10 in the third quarter to open a 60-36 lead at the end of the third quarter. That lead ballooned to 26 at 64-38 with eight minutes and forty-four seconds left in the game. Bench players for State got an opportunity to get some playing time as the game clock ran down.

Similar to how Jakia Brown-Turner played in the December 17th game against Wake when she led State in scoring with 23, she did in this game by scoring 21 points shooting 9-14 from the floor and 2-3 from the arc. Kayla Jones (what would State be without her) while playing only 16 minutes scored 16 shooting 7-9 from the floor. Elissa Cunane scored 15 shooting 6-13 from the floor; 1-2 from the arc. Elissa also had 10 boards. While Raina Perez did not shoot well only hitting 1 of her 6 shots, she did lead the team in assist with 5. Unfortunately, Raina had 4 turnovers.

For Wake, Ivana Raca who consistently walks in those double, triple pivots (so says I) scored 18 shooting 6-13 from the floor; 1-3 from the arc. Wake's Gina Conti again struggle against State hitting only 1-9 shots; 1-3 from the arc. Conti finished with 4. Bench player Olivia Summiel had 9 shooting 4-5 from the floor; 1-2 from the arc.

The announcers for the game during the pregame analysis discussed Wake's chances of making the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1980's. Seniors Ivana Raca and Gina Conti after winning just one conference game in the 2018-19 season and seven in the 2019-20 season have hopes of making the NCAA tournament field of 64 this season. Charlie Crème as of February 16th had Wake as one of the "last four in". However, taking a beat down, even if by a team like State, really puts a damper on Wake's chances. Wake is still tied for 6th place in the conference with Notre Dame, but that 8-8 conference record! Wake has two more games, both on the road. One game is at 9-10 Miami and the other is at 8-6 Florida State. One might think Wake has to win both of those games and win one or two in the ACC Tournament to get an invite to the NCAA Tournament. Wake's NET of 47 and their "Live RPI" of 41 certainly helps their cause as does wins over NET 25 Georgia Tech and NET 26 VaTech.

As to State, a win over hated UNC Sunday in the Play4Kay game puts State back to a number one seed and maybe a ranking as the number two seed overall especially with that South Carolina loss to Tennessee. Go Kellie Harper!