NC State women’s basketball dismantles Syracuse, 95-53, on Senior Day in Raleigh
N.C. State has celebrated two championships in Greensboro the past few seasons.
It was finally time to celebrate one at home in front of its fans.
On Senior Night, the No. 4 Wolfpack demolished Syracuse, 95-53.
With the win, N.C. State captured at least a share of the ACC regular-season title. It’s the first time in 32 years the Pack will claim a regular-season crown.
N.C. State (25-3, 16-1) can win the title outright if it defeats Virginia Tech next Sunday, but shared crown or not, there will be another banner handing in Reynolds — exactly what head coach Wes Moore wanted for this group.
Before the game, the school honored its four seniors — Kayla Jones, Kai Crutchfield, Raina Perez, Elissa Cunane — and sent them off on a high note.
Jones, Crutchfield and Cunane already have two ACC tournament titles, and Perez has one. The team has now won 17 straight ACC home games dating to the end of the 2019-2020 season.
“Just happy for the whole team, the seniors especially,” Moore said. “Just to be a high level of legacy, so they can make that mark on this program, is really special.”
Jones and Crutchfield have been a part of 129 wins, 65 ACC wins and 72 wins at home, more than any other players in school history. They both came back to get to the Final Four and win a national championship. That and another ACC tournament title are still a possibility.
The first box to check, though, was the regular-season title.
All four seniors are starters, and they quickly made sure the outcome wasn’t in doubt. N.C. State jumped out to an 11-0 lead and was up 28-9 after the first quarter.
“You always worry about senior day and how they are going to come out emotionally,” Moore said. “I think we did a pretty good job of treating it like any other game.”
Getting off to a good start was a point of emphasis all week for the team.
“We know (slow starts) have gotten us in trouble the last couple of games,” Cunane said. “Today was a big one. We still have another one (game) left, so we have to come out with the same energy.”
The Wolfpack wore red throwback jerseys to honor the 1984-85 team. That squad swept the ACC regular-season and tournament championships, one of two teams in school history to do so. The 1984-85 team was honored during a timeout in the first half.
At the time, Syracuse was on an 11-0 run and cut the deficit to 12. Perhaps inspired by the ‘84-85 team being there, or Moore lighting a fire, N.C. State scored the next nine points to stop any serious threat by the Orange.
Jones, the forward from Jamesville who missed most of the NCAA tournament a year ago, sparked the run. She scored five in a row to push the lead to 21. Cunane got in on the action, scoring four in a row to make it 45-24.
Up to that point Crutchfield was the only senior who hadn’t scored. The Raleigh native nailed a 3 right before halftime to make it a 22-point advantage at the break. N.C. State was up 36 after three quarters. The fourth quarter served as a precursor to the celebration.
The seniors combined for 46 points, led by Jones, who scored a season-high 18 points. Cunane chipped in 14 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Moore also got 35 points from his bench. The seniors became spectators at the end, getting a rare moment to cheer on their teammates.
“We’re leaving and we are leaving the next group of kids to grow up in this program,” Cunane said. “To see them out there balling out, kind of like as our good bye, I was super proud of them.”
The 16 conference wins set a new program record. Under Moore, the team has won at least 25 games five times. Regardless of what happens in Blacksburg next weekend, the Pack will head to Greensboro for the ACC tournament as a top 2 seed. N.C. State is already one of the top overall seeds for the NCAA tournament. That would mark the second straight season the Pack has been a No. 1 seed.
The goal in March is to break the glass ceiling on the Sweet 16 and make it to a Final Four. In 2020, this group won its first ACC tournament title since 1991. It repeated as tournament champs a year later.
After defeating Syracuse, they didn’t cut down the nets in Reynolds. They’ll save that for Greensboro, and hopefully Minneapolis, the site of the Final Four. For the moment, at least, they are champions for a day, and another banner is coming to Reynolds.
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 3:42 PM.
