Raina Perez’s heroics lead NC State to the Elite Eight

Someone begin designing the Raina Perez statue. Her steal and score to give NC State the lead over Notre Dame with 15 seconds left was one of the biggest moments of the NCAA tournament thus far, and it saved the Wolfpack’s season. What an unbelievable play.

I’m still sitting here in shock. Probably going to watch those clips another 50 times.

State had not led in this game since the second quarter and had to erase an eight-point deficit with about six minutes left. Notre Dame shot the ball better all day and that looked like it was going to be the difference, but time and time again this Wolfpack group has shown resiliency, and they rallied one more time when it mattered the most.

For whatever reason, getting past the Sweet Sixteen has always been a problem for this program. NC State has gotten that far 15 times, and including today, has gotten to the Elite Eight just twice. The other time the Pack made it this far was 1998, when they advanced to the Final Four by beating ... UConn.

We’ll see if that’s the matchup on Monday night, but no need to worry about that right now because we’re soaking Raina’s heroics in for the rest of the day. Holy shit what a win.