NC State women's basketball is headed back to the ACC Tournament semifinals after gutting out a 54-51 victory over Duke in Friday night's quarterfinal.
The second-seeded Wolfpack will move on to take on either third-seeded Syracuse or sixth-seeded Florida State in the semifinal round. That game is set for a 2:30 p.m. start on Saturday inside the Greensboro Coliseum. It will mark NC State's 28th ACC semifinals berth of all time and its sixth such appearance in the last seven seasons.
Aziaha James (16 points) and
Zoe Brooks (12 points) scored in double figures, with
River Baldwin finishing just outside of that with eight points. James and
Saniya Rivers both finished with eight rebounds each, and Brooks led the team with five assists, three steals and no turnovers in her ACC Tournament debut.
The Wolfpack locked down defensively and held Duke to a combined 6-of-28 (.214) in the second half. NC State shot 38.6 percent (22-of-57) overall.
NC State scored 11 of the last 13 of the first quarter, including tallying the final five of the period, to lead by five (21-16) after 10 minutes of action in what was its third matchup of the season against the Blue Devils. The Wolfpack held the Blue Devils without a make from the field for nearly six minutes in the second quarter to go up by as many as 10 points (29-19) but then went cold itself and hit only two of its final 12 shots of the period. In the final four minutes of the first half, Duke went on an 8-0 run to make it a one-possession game (29-27) in favor of the Pack at the break.
After missing its final five shots of the first half, NC State started the second half 0-for-7 to allow Duke to take its first lead since the late stages of the first quarter. A three by James at the 6:02 mark of the third quarter ended a nearly nine-minute scoring drought for the Pack. That bucket came in the midst of a period that featured six lead changes and four ties, with the majority of Duke's points in the final minutes of the third coming from the charity stripe.
Hayes hit her second triple of the game with five seconds remaining in the third to send the Pack to the fourth with a one-point lead (43-42). The Blue Devils tied it up twice in the fourth quarter but were never able to grab a lead back. The Pack held onto a three-point advantage as both teams hit another scoreless drought, went up five with a Brooks lay in off an inbounds play with :58 remaining and locked down on defense to gut out the three-point victory.
NC State will make the turnaround to prepare for its Saturday semifinal game, with that contest set to be televised nationally on the ACC Network.
https://gopack.com/news/2024/3/8/womens-basketball-nc-state-womens-hoops-advances-to-acc-tournament-semis-with-win-over-duke