NC State women’s basketball tops Virginia Tech, 70-55, to reach ACC championship game

Wes Moore has said several times that Virginia Tech is a mirror image of his N.C. State team. After three quarters, Moore’s team got tired of looking at itself.

The Wolfpack broke the game open with a 13-0 run to bridge the third and fourth quarters, which was enough for N.C. State to advance to the ACC Tournament final with a 70-55 win.

The Wolfpack made it to Sunday’s title game for the third straight season. It will face Miami, which followed its stunning upset of Louisville in the quarterfinals with a win over Notre Dame in Saturday’s semifinal round.

“Great team win and proud of what this team has been doing,” Moore said. “I’ve been riding their coattails now for four years, so it’s been a good ride.”

While N.C. State caught fire late, the Hokies started the fourth quarter 0-for-5 from the floor.

Their first basket was a 3 from Kayana Traylor with 6:36 remaining which drew the Hokies within nine. After all the dramatics from the first few rounds of the ACC Tournament, that didn’t seem like enough.

N.C. State (28-3) scored the next eight points to cruise into the championship game.

Virginia Tech, one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the ACC, starting the fourth going 1-for-7 from long range. It finished 4-for-18 behind the arc.

“Yeah, again, they’ve got three of the best 3-point shooters in the conference, maybe even four,” Moore said. “I mean, they really do a great job of knocking those down. I thought we did a nice job of getting a hand up.”

Moore got a big second half from senior center Elissa Cuanne. The Summerfield native started the game 1-for-8, but scored 13 in the second half, finishing with 20 points and 13 rebounds. It was her eighth double-double this year. Junior forward Jada Boyd came off the bench and scored 16 for N.C. State.

“Just coming in with a dominant mindset, knowing that I know what I’m going to do and hoping to get to the championship,” Boyd said. “Just playing for another goal gives me confidence, and moving towards the goal feels good.”

N.C. State swept Virginia Tech in the regular season by a combined eight points. Even without ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley, the Hokies hung around. Virginia Tech trailed by as many as 10 in the second quarter, but closed the second half on a 6-0 run.

The Hokies pulled to within one early in the third, but never took the lead.

“They made it tough on us, mixing up man and zone,” Moore said. “And then when you have a lead and they’re pressing, you’ve got to decide do you want to press the issue and try to score, but if you do that now, you’re shooting quick and giving them more possessions. But I thought our players made good decisions and handled it well.”

The tide seemed to turn when Cunane hit a 3-pointer to make it 50-44 and Boyd hit a turnaround in the lane. Brown-Turner ended the third with a 3 to push the lead to 10 heading into the fourth.

Virginia Tech’s offense fell apart in the fourth. The Hokies only connected on one field goal in the last 10 minutes.

The title game will start at noon on Sunday. This is N.C. State’s 17th trip to the final, and the third in a row for Cunane, Boyd and the core of this group.

“We’re still excited to be back. It feels a little different because we’ve had experience now,” Cunane said. “We’ve been in the big game, I guess, three times now, won it twice. But we still have to come out there with the same mentality. We have to dominate and we have to take it (one) game at a time. So we can’t look past it and say, we’ve won it before so we’re going to win it. No, we have to respect who we’re playing and really study the scout and be ready.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 1:53 PM.

Jonas E. Pope IV

The News & Observer

919-829-8911

Sports reporter Jonas Pope IV has covered college recruiting, high school sports, NC Central, NC State and the ACC for The Herald-Sun and The News & Observer.