MCLAMB: Creating A Legacy

With 3:45 remaining, Florida State had a five-point lead on NC State and the Seminoles had scored 10 straight points. It was all set up for the Wolfpack to fold. 

Except they didn’t. 

If NC State was going to end a title drought that lasted 29 years, it was only fitting that it would have to be won in the ‘championship minutes.’

After a three-pointer from Florida State that gave the Seminoles that five-point advantage the Pack did not allow a field goal for the rest of the way, had its senior guard drain a massive three-pointer, and subsequently they are now waiting no more. 

At this point Wes Moore has claimed nearly a gazillion conference titles in his coaching career. Now his team has cut the nets down at the best league of them all. ACC women’s basketball is an unrelenting meat-grinder. 

This season the league is not quite as elite as it has been; however, it is still highly competitive.

The fall of Notre Dame, along with Louisville’s issues against Florida State, opened doors. However, to be a champion it requires execution at the proper moment. The Wolfpack was ready when there was slippage from others -- in some cases, it was Moore’s team who made others slip -- and now it sports a conference title banner that will hang high inside Reynolds. 

It initially appeared that NC State would have to traverse a path to the ACC Tournament Final that would essentially be a revenge tour. Had things went chalk, the Pack would have faced Georgia Tech, Duke, and finally Louisville, all three schools that won in Raleigh during a rough February patch for Moore’s squad that killed off hope for a regular season league crown. The Blue Devils and the Cardinals did not oblige – or more to the point, it was Boston College and the Seminoles who changed the dynamic. 

That is not NC State’s problem. The Wolfpack shrugged off its February swoon and some first quarter woes in Greensboro to get itself in position to play for the title. 

Kay Yow is the beacon that NC State’s women’s basketball program will always look to, but now Moore is staking his claim as a Wolfpack great. He joins Yow as the only coaches to win ACC titles in Raleigh, and the Pack seem poised to compete for more honors both this season and beyond. 

Moore gives praise to his players and often states that it is they who must perform in order to win the game, but he is certainly getting the right ones to commit to NC State. After FSU opened up a five-point lead, it was summarily cut back to a one-possession game with a prompt score from Elissa Cunane -- a player destined to hang her retired jersey number in the rafters along with the ACC title the Pack just won. 

Aislinn Konig tied it with a three-pointer on the next trip down. Konig, who has admirably played out of position as a point guard while NC State dealt with a dearth of ball handlers due to injury, slid back into her comfortable role at the off-guard as Kai Crutchfield and Kaila Ealey were tasked with getting the ball into the frontcourt. 

Consequently, Konig was 4-of-9 from three-point range, claimed the MVP honors for the tournament, and her game-tying trey will go down as one of the biggest shots in school history. 

NC State was ready. The Pack adjusted after injuries. They remained poised during adverse and tense moments. The belief never wavered, and Moore’s team executed when it mattered most. 

And now NC State is the ACC champion. The Wolfpack no longer has to lean on legacy. They are now creating it.