RALEIGH, N.C. – The 23rd-ranked NC State Wolfpack women’s basketball team remained unbeaten at home by posting an 85-76 victory over the Boston College Eagles at Reynolds Coliseum on Thursday.
Forwards Markeisha Gatling (27 points, 8 rebounds) and Kody Burke (24 points, 11 rebounds) did a majority of the damage to the Eagles interior defense while point guard Len’Nique Brown added 15 points, seven rebounds, and four assists to churn the Wolfpack offense from the perimeter.
Gatling’s career-high in scoring and her 9-for-10 performance from the free throw line which matched Brown’s work from the charity stripe was critical in keeping the Eagles at a distance throughout the game as NC State (17-3, 4-2) scored a season-high 29 free throws on 36 attempts made.
As both teams were coming off recent losses, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s (ACC) two leading teams in three-point field goals made came out launching balls and attempted 47 shots combined from beyond the arc throughout the game.
While Boston College (11-9, 2-4) kept NC State’s completed three’s below their current eight per game average, the Eagles relied on their 13 triples to stay as close to the Wolfpack as they could.
Kelly Hughes (23 points, 3 rebounds), Katie Zenevitch (19 points, 3 rebounds), and Kristen Doherty (10 points, 6 rebounds) led the Boston College offense with Hughes (6-10) and Zenevitch (3-3) putting up exceptional numbers from the perimeter.
“Gotta’ give Boston College credit,” NC State head coach Wes Moore said.
“They shot the lights out.”
After Gatling won the tip, Boston College’s aggressive man-coverage defense tested NC State’s ball movement early on and forced the offense to use the entire shot clock before Burke scored the game’s first points just before the buzzer sounded.
From there, the Wolfpack went on a quick 9-0 run while the Eagles struggled at both ends of the court and forced head coach Erik Johnson to call a timeout at the 17:34 mark.
Zenevitch then put up BC’s first points with a layup, but Burke matched and upped that with a three.
While both teams traded baskets for the next three minutes, NC State managed to keep and build upon a lead that it never relinquished throughout the game.
As the Wolfpack maintained a double-digit lead, 22-12, with 12:53 to play, the Eagles continued to work to get their shot attempts from the field to start falling.
Coming out of the under-eight minute media timeout, the Eagles found their opportunity to reduce the lead and proceeded to outscore the Wolfpack 15-10 over a period of five minutes.
Their entire offensive surge was the product of converting five three-pointers to come to within four points of the Wolfpack, trailing 38-34, with 2:13 left in the half.
Boston College kept pressing to score, but NC State reached down a little deeper defensively and got a couple of steals, rebounded effectively, and earned shot attempts from the free throw line to negate the surge.
“Both Burke and Gatling were just too much for us inside,” Johnson said.
“That combination – they (NC State) pass the ball so well, those two pass the ball to each other so well – they finished everything. Obviously Kody Burke’s a nightmare when she’s hitting perimeter shots as well. I thought their point guard play was excellent as well. They got a lot of assists on drives.”
Leading 41-39 to start the second half, both teams traded misses in between Burke’s layup and Hughes’ three that made it a one-point affair, 43-42, with 18:04 remaining to play.
That was the closest the score would get.
Both teams traded baskets for the next five minutes, but it was NC State who put up a quick string of points from Myisha Goodwin-Coleman (8 points, 5 rebounds), Krystal Barrett (4 points, 8 assists), and Gatling as part of a 11-4 run that extended the Wolfpack lead back up to 11 points.
NC State added to the lead a bit more while the Eagles tried to stay close as the Wolfpack led 66-53 with 7:25 remaining.
For the remainder of the game, Johnson tried to squeeze out as much as he could from his roster of players that were tired and worn down as a result of playing grinding, physical basketball games against four ranked teams in their last five games.
“Credit needs to go to NC State,” he said.
“Our kids battled. I’m really proud of ‘em in terms of how we came back from that early deficit, but we didn’t have enough and we needed to rebound. NC State was tougher and they got the boards and that’s what was the difference in the game.”
Even while both teams combined for a total of 45 personal fouls, with the Eagles tallying 28 of them, NC State kept its distance and didn’t allow Boston College to get any closer than seven points for the remainder of the game.
“We hung in there,” Moore said.
“It’s a game that you wanna’ try to get over with as quick as you can and get out of here. We had a lot of people step up and play really well. I thought that our inside presence was very strong.”