RALEIGH, N.C. – The N.C. State Wolfpack opened its season with an 84-55 win over the Tennessee State Lady Tigers at Reynolds Coliseum on Friday.
Dominique Wilson (20 points, 3 assists, 4 steals), Miah Spencer (14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists), and Jennifer Mathurin (13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals) led N.C. State’s offense that fired at a 45-percent conversion rate from the field.
It was the first-ever meeting between the two programs and the matchup pushed the Wolfpack to get a hold of its game early on as the Lady Tigers took a 5-0 lead within the first minute of play.
N.C. State missed its first two scoring attempts – a layup from Krystal Barrett (8 points, 7 rebounds) and a follow-up putback attempt from Carlee Shuhmacher (2 points, 2 rebounds) before Mathurin eventually dropped a three-pointer to score the Wolfpack’s first points of the game at the 18:10 mark.
A quick steal soon afterward allowed Barrett to tie the score 5-5 and from that point on, the home team began to build a lead with the help of Wilson that it would never relinquish for the rest of the game.
A redshirt sophomore transfer from Arkansas, Wilson sat out last season and was ready to show what she could present for the Wolfpack this year after watching the team win 25 games, earn a national ranking for 12 straight weeks to end the season, and a fourth place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) regular-season standings.
“It felt great,” Wilson said when describing her performance that included 5-of-10 shooting from the field and a perfect 9-of-9 effort from the free throw line.
“I was a little rusty in the exhibition game (against Lenoir-Rhyne) because I hadn’t played in a year, but coach helped me out and we just played as a team to make it easier to play good. It felt really good.”
With only two points by the midpoint of the first half, she helped contribute defensively and offensively – forcing turnovers and collecting steals as well as scoring points – to extend the Wolfpack lead to as much as 24 points.
By halftime, Wilson had 15 points and N.C. State led 44-26 – scoring 21 points off Tennessee turnovers as well as converting 20 points in the paint.
“Good debut for her,” Moore said.
A strong rebounding effort, a 46-35 edge to the Wolfpack, was led by six-foot-one-inch freshman forward Chelsea Nelson (8 points, 10 rebounds).
On the surface, the overall performance resulted in a win, but according to the coach, his team has a lot of work to do.
With only two returning senior starters in Barrett and Len’Nique Brown (3 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds), the Wolfpack fielded a young squad that included four freshmen and two transfers.
Two of those newcomers, the team’s two tallest players – six-foot-five-inch Akela Maize and Sara Boric – didn’t play against the Tigers due to injury and paperwork issues respectively.
As a result, a four-out-one-in offense that relied on a large presence in the paint to score points last season with WNBA draft picks Markeisha Gatling and Kody Burke, couldn’t present that option as much as Moore wanted in the season-opener.
“We can go small, and we’re definitely prepared to do that, but we can’t go so small that we don’t have at least one post player out there,” Moore said.
“Tonight, it seemed like we were in that situation too much.”
“We are experimenting with a lot of stuff, especially for the post and our guards,“ Mathurin added.
“As you saw today, all of our post players were out and the guards had to play some of the post positions. We’re still tryin’ to figure out who we are and our identity as a team.”
The situation exacerbated itself more during the second half, during which N.C. State struggled with its shooting, continued to turn the ball over and got into foul trouble, while the Tigers maintained a consistent and tenacious 33-percent shooting effort led by Brianna Lawrence (14 points, 3 rebounds) and Chelsea Hudson (9 points, 4 rebounds).
Though the Wolfpack got its first victory, it was under less than ideal circumstances to Moore’s liking.
He was focused ahead as much as he was in the present, and though his team could celebrate, it had to be for a brief moment before getting prepared for the next game.
“Effort was pretty good,” Moore said.
“We just got a lot of things we still have to clean up. We turned the ball over way too much. We knew they were athletic and they were gettin’ in the passin’ lanes some. We didn’t always do a very good job of workin’ to beat that.”
The coach’s facial expression and tone in his postgame comments indicated that he, nor his team, would be resting too easily.
“It’s a win,” Moore concluded.
“We’ve got a tough stretch right here – three games in five days with the third one bein’ on the road – so it’s gonna’ be important that we bounce back pretty quick.”