Women's ACC Tournament vs NC State

The Ladies play NC State today at 6 PM. The game will be available on Regional Sports Networks. Tom Werme and Debbie Antonelli will call the game. NC State is the no 2 seed; the Hokies are the 7 seed. But the announcers yesterday were pretty emphatic that they thought the Hokies were at least the 3rd best team in the ACC, both in terms of talent and current play. NC State is 12-2 in ACC play and 17-2 overall. Their losses were to the Hokies in Cassell and at UNC. Cunane did not play against us; she did play at UNC.

The big story everyone is talking about is Cunane vs Kitley in this one. This match up started when both were still in high school. Cunane is a year older and seems to be a little stronger. Kitley has a higer scoring average, has more rebounds/game and blocks more shots; but Cunane is morelikely to shoot from 3. NC State has four players averaging in double figures and Raina Perez is at 9.2 ppg. So there is talent at every spot on the team. The Hokies have only three players averaging double figures and Cayla King at 8.9. NC State has 7 players who have played every game. The Hokies also have 7 players who have played in most games.

The key to this game may be how much and how well Sheppard can play. She went out of the last two games in the first half. And the Hokies struggled without her.

The usual tables and pictures below. For this thread, I have also included data for the Hokies for comparison.

33 Elissa Cunane Jr. Center 6'5
Min: 26.1 Pts: 16.3 Reb 8.8 FG: 57.0% 3PT: 53.3% FT: 83.3%

11 Jakia Brown-Turner So. Wing 6'0
Min: 31.9 Pts: 15.8 Reb 4.6 FG: 47.2% 3PT: 41.2% FT: 71.9%

25 Kayla Jones Sr. Forward 6'1
Min: 30.6 Pts: 13.4 Reb 7.1 FG: 49.0% 3PT: 43.8% FT: 66.7%

5 Jada Boyd So. Forward 6'2
Min: 20.2 Pts: 10.2 Reb 6.1 FG: 45.6% 3PT: 25.0% FT: 83.3%

2 Raina Perez Gr. Guard 5'4
Min: 33.5 Pts: 9.2 Reb 3.5 FG: 43.9% 3PT: 34.8% FT: 82.6%

3 Kai Crutchfield Sr. Guard 5'9
Min: 33 Pts: 6.6 Reb 3.4 FG: 37.9% 3PT: 36.6% FT: 92.3%

41 Camille Hobby So. Center 6'1
Min: 13.6 Pts: 5.3 Reb 2.9 FG: 46.4% 3PT: 36.4% FT: 66.7%

Our top three, Kitley, Sheppard and Amoore, match up fairly well with their top three, Cunane, Brown-Turner and Jones. Our next two, King and Baines, do not score as well as their next two, Perez and Crutchfield. But King is capable of getting hot and scoring well above her average.

I am really finding it difficult to point to anything in the stats that says they are much better than we are. However, if Sheppard is not available or not able to play well, we are going to have to have someone come off the bench with their supergirl cape on for us to stay with the Wolfpack.

If Sheppard is healthy, this will be a great game to watch.

Go Hokies!