WBB vs NC State

The Lady Hokies play NC State at NC State at 12:30 on January 20. The game is on Regional Sports Network stations. NC State is undefeated at 17-0 and 4-0 in ACC. The Hokies come into the game at 13-4 and 0-4 in ACC. The Hokies have lost to Miami, UVA, #14 Syracuse and #1 Notre Dame. NC State has beaten Duke, Boston College, Pitt and Virginia. Against the common opponent UVA, Tech lost 58-62. NC State won 66-38. Both were at UVA.

Below are NC State season stats:

NC State shoots 46.5% from the field and 34.1% from 3 on the season. 69.6% on free throws. They have out rebounded their competition by 13 rebounds per game. They average 17 assists and 14 turnovers per game. None of their players average close to 3 personal fouls per game; but Kiara Leslie has fouled out twice. They average 8 3 point makes per game. And 11 points on free throws per game. Leslie and Konig are the best 3 pt shooters. Hunter(50.3%), Cunane(63.9%), and Cassell(47.1%) shoot very well over all. Hunter shoots 80% free throws; the rest are 65-70% free throw shooters.

In their last 2 games vs UVA and Pitt, they shot about 42% overall and 22%(UVA) and 36%(Pitt) from 3. So, it's possible their season stats are misleading due to weaker competition. But both UVA and Pitt were blow out wins by nearly 30 points. So even though the offense was not as good as their season average, their defense was excellent. I could not find ACC only stats for them.

Starting Line Up:

# 23 Grace Hunter 5'9" Redshirt Junior Guard

#11 Kiara Leslie 6'0" Graduate Guard

#1 Aislinn Konig 5'9" Junior Guard

#24 Erica Cassell 6'2" Junior Forward

#21 DD Rogers 6'1" Senior Forward; splits time about equally with Elissa Cunane

Others who play significant minutes:

#33 Elissa Cunane 6'5" Freshman Center; Doesn't start, but third leading scorer at 12.4 pts/game

#3 Kai Crutchfield 5'8" Sophomore Guard

#25 Kayla Jones 6'1" Sophomore Forward

#50 Armani Hawkins 5'11" Redshirt Junior Guard

Final Comments:

This will be a challenging game for the Hokies; but I think they match up better against NC State than the other ACC teams they have played. If they can control Cunane inside and keep pressure on Leslie and Konig outside, they may have a chance. But they will have to make some shots from 3 to open up the inside for Magarity and Baptist's.

Emery and Magarity need to have their typical games. Baptiste needs to continue the play she showed against Notre Dame. Mabrey need to play the way she can. And Kendyl Brooks, Aisha Shepard or Alexis Jean needs to have a good game. If all of that happens, we can give NC State a good game. If any one of those keys is missing, we will have trouble staying with the Wolfpack.

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