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As impressive as NC State’s fourth quarter-performance at Duke was, they managed to outdo themselves against Wake Forest. There’s no way to describe a team scoring 37 points over a 10-minute span, as the Wolfpack did in the third quarter on Thursday, and do it justice. What words are there for that?
We have numbers, and those say enough: NC State was 14-18 from the field and 8-9 from three in the third quarter. Wake Forest wasn’t even that bad offensively in the third quarter (18 points) and yet went from down 14 at the half to down 33 going into the fourth.
Four Factors
| ... | NC State | Wake |
|---|---|---|
| ... | NC State | Wake |
| eFG% | 58.3 | 44.9 |
| TO% | 5.5 | 23.3 |
| OR% | 21.2 | 25.0 |
| FTR | 33.3 | 20.3 |
Pace and Efficiency
| Team | Pts | Poss | OFF_EFF | DEF_EFF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Pts | Poss | OFF_EFF | DEF_EFF |
| Wake | 61 | 73 | 83.6 | 126.0 |
| NC State | 92 | 73 | 126.0 | 83.6 |
The Pack held a 14-13 lead after one, and then Camille Hobby got cooking in the second quarter to help extend the lead into double figures. It wasn’t a great first half, but it was fine, and plenty good enough to put State on the path to a routine victory.
The first half was actually a tale of NC State’s success in attacking the paint, as the Pack struggled to a 1-8 start from the perimeter while shooting 14-23 from two during the first half.
It was a strong collective effort in the first half that continued in the second, and Elissa Cunane opened the floodgates by scoring the first five points of the second half, including the Pack’s first three-pointer of the quarter. From there, the entire team entered God Mode.
Suddenly all of the jump shots were falling, and NC State wasn’t turning the ball over, and there were no mistakes in execution whatsoever as the confidence grew and they moved the ball and kept on pressing the issue against a bad Wake Forest defense.
Some of the ball movement was there in the first half, it’s just that the shots didn’t go in. They pretty much all went in during that third quarter.
Diamond Johnson led the team with 16 points after a slow start; Jakia Brown-Turner played great all night and scored 15; Camille Hobby had a true Macrowave effort by scoring 14 off the bench; Kayla Jones had 11; Elissa Cunane finished with 10. Jada Boyd was, again, quietly very good.
Lotta depth here, if you hadn’t noticed. Wake sure did.