NC State women’s basketball beats another No. 1 team. This time, it was Louisville.
Elissa Cunane couldn’t stop smiling.
Cunane was back on the court Monday with the N.C. State women’s basketball team, playing again, winning again.
And winning big. For the second time this season, the No. 4 Wolfpack went on the road and knocked off the No. 1 team in the country, beating top-ranked Louisville 74-60 at the KFC Yum! Center.
Cunane had not played since Jan. 3 as she went through the COVID-19 protocols and the Pack had a COVID pause. The junior center had some rough days dealing with coronavirus symptoms, she said. She also ached to be back on the court, especially after seeing the Wolfpack lose in overtime at Virginia Tech last week for its first loss.
But there she was Monday, playing 30 minutes, scoring 16 points, teaming with Jakia Brown-Turner, Jada Boyd, Raina Perez and the others to hand Louisville its first defeat of the season after a 16-0 start.
The Wolfpack (12-1, 7-1 ACC) knocked off South Carolina earlier this season when the Gamecocks were No. 1. But this was against the Pack’s big ACC rival, a team capable of winning a national championship.
“It feels so good,” Cunane said, beaming. “We were ready for this moment. We knew going on the road to play the No. 1 was going to be hard but we did it before. So we just prepared. We knew we had to have energy and go into like we know what we’re doing.”
Cunane wasn’t lacking energy. Not this night.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I wasn’t winded at all. I was just running out there. I had too much energy. Coach had to tell me to calm down a little bit.”
Calm down but not slow down too much. Wolfpack coach Wes Moore turned her loose, let her run. Brown-Turner and Boyd also had 16 points apiece, and Perez 15.
It was tied 18-18 after the first quarter but the Wolfpack was the better team from there, outrebounding Louisville 44-29 as Kayla Jones had 13 boards. The Pack led by as many as 18 points in the second half against the Cardinals (9-1 ACC).
“It was just one of those nights,” Moore said. “A great team win.
Louisville’s Dana Evans has had some big nights and had another Monday: 29 points, with five 3-pointers. But the Pack limited the Cardinals to 38.3 percent shooting from the field, muzzled Louisville’s transition game and held it to a season-low 60 points.
“What about Evans, holy cow,” Moore said. “She just takes over ball games. But just thought we did a great job defensively, on the boards. Those are the things we have to do to be successful.”
How successful can the Pack be? N.C. State won the ACC championship last season but had the pandemic force the NCAA tournament to be canceled. What about this season?
“We can go pretty far,” Perez said. “We can go as far as we want. Beating another No. 1 team motivates us and I’m excited to see where we can take this.”
More photos of the game are below:
This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 8:41 PM.