NC State makes short work of Duke in 84-60 victory

Ten days after ambushing UNC, the Wolfpack Women were busy giving Duke the same treatment. NC State scored the first six points of the game this afternoon, took a 10-point lead into the second quarter, and led by 20 points at the half.

The Blue Devils barely had time to get warm before they were playing from way behind, and while their shooting did improve in the second half, they weren’t capable of mounting a serious run.

Elissa Cunane was a major reason why Duke fell behind and stayed there, as she finished with 23 points on 9-17 shooting. Another reason why Duke couldn’t mount a challenge: the huge difference in turnovers. State turned the ball over just four times all day, while Duke coughed it up 17 times. That’s a difficult handicap to overcome on the road against a top-five team, and Duke wasn’t exactly great at maximizing the possessions that did end with field goal attempts.

It was another good all-around effort by the Pack, which dominated the paint in this one. In addition to keeping Duke off the glass, State also limited the Blue Devils to 40% shooting inside the arc.

NC State has been playing good defense lately, and we’ll need that to continue with Louisville and Virginia Tech coming to town over the next seven days.