GREENSBORO -- With every putback, every shot as the shot clock expires, every loose ball collected diving on the floor, N.C. State is building the persona of a dangerous basketball team.
Just ask third-seeded Virginia, a team the sixth-seeded Wolfpack knocked off 66-59 in the quarterfinal round of the ACC Women's Tournament on Friday night at Greensboro Coliseum.
The Pack (19-12) surged to a 12-point lead in the second half and held off the No. 24 Cavaliers, who pulled to within three points with four minutes, 51 seconds remaining. The Pack held off the talented senior guard Monica Wright, who despite early foul trouble scored 32 points, including 17 consecutive over a seven-minute span in the second half to cut the lead to 53-50.
State faces seventh-seeded Boston College at 3:30 p.m. today. The Eagles advanced with a 67-60 upset victory over second-seeded Florida State on Friday.
"This is fun," State's first-year coach Kellie Harper said. "This team is awesome. They've got the biggest hearts."
A collective effort propelled the Pack over the Cavaliers, with four players scoring in double figures.
State's Marissa Kastanek, the conference's freshman of the year, scored a team-high 15 points, shooting 3-for-6 from the 3-point arc. Senior Nikitta Gartrell added 12 points, while junior Brittany Strachan had 11, including 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.
The Pack shot 45 percent from beyond the arc and 65.2 percent from the free-throw line, making shots from both when it counted.
Gartrell buried a 3-pointer at 1:47 of the second half after a nearly three-minute scoring drought.
A 3-pointer by Kastanek from the left baseline gave the Pack a 27-24 halftime lead. She also made three free throws over the final 40 seconds of the game.
That came after her coach helped her relax on the sideline by imitating a YouTube video of "David After Dentist" that's popular among players.
"Marissa actually came to the bench a little flustered, and the last thing I needed her at the point was being tight and too tense," Harper said. "So I had to make her laugh. She was nervous. It worked."
It was clear who State needed to stop: Wright.
This week she was named the conference's player of the year and defensive player of the year after averaging 23 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.6 steals this season. The All-ACC guard surpassed Dawn Staley as Virginia's career scoring leader. She's third on the ACC's all-time list.
Wright had scored 26 points in a 73-60 victory over the Wolfpack on Jan. 27.
Perhaps the best way to contain a player like Wright is limit her time on the court. That plan worked for State in the first half, as the Cavaliers' standout was called for her second foul with 9:21 remaining and did not re-enter the game until 6:11 of the half.
State managed only two points in her absence, but Wright - who had 10 points at the time - picked up her third foul two minutes later as she vied for a rebound with Lucy Ellison.
Slowed but not stopped, Wright scored 22 points in the second half, shooting 12-for- 26 from the field. Still, she could not lift her team over a plucky, resourceful State team that defended her by committee with man-on-man defense.
"First off, we never set out to stop Monica because that's impossible," Gartrell said. "She's a great player. We came out to defend straight up. And if things weren't working we'd have to tweak it. Switch up defenses. She's going to score."
State advanced out of the first round of the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2007 with a 59-54 victory over Clemson on Thursday.
Victories over Georgia Tech, Virginia and Clemson can only help the Pack's chances of earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. State is projected as a No. 11 seed by collegerpi.com, which ranks the team's strength of schedule at 23rd in the country.
State has now won seven of its past nine games, a turboboost to its confidence after struggling to win close games early in the season.
"It may not be pretty, but at any moment in time we know that the pressure, 'OK, we've had pressure before and we've beat it,' " Kastanek said. "Same thing. different time. ... We just have to bring ourselves together and be like, 'We know we can do this, so just relax. We got it.' "
