NC State women’s basketball wins 10th straight ACC tournament game in win over Syracuse

No Diamond Johnson? No problem.

Without its leading scorer and lone All-ACC selection, eighth-seeded North Carolina State shot a season-best 60.7% from the floor and won its second-round game at the ACC Tournament on Thursday, racing away from ninth-seeded Syracuse for an 83-58 victory.

For Wolfpack head coach Wes Moore, the win marked the 800th of his career. It also extended N.C. State’s winning streak against Syracuse to seven games, and marked 10 consecutive ACC Tournament wins for the Wolfpack.

“Just proud of the way our team came out. Syracuse has been really hot,” Moore said. “Offensively, we played much better. We had too many turnovers. As one of the coaches said, ‘If we’d take care of the ball a little bit better, we might score 100.’ Again, good all-around team effort.”

Johnson has been battling a lingering ankle injury since December and hasn’t played in two weeks. Moore said that Johnson will likely miss the ACC Tournament.

Without her on Thursday, the Wolfpack (20-10) were powered by a collective effort, with five players scoring in double digits. N.C. State was powered by its post players as Camille Hobby had 16 points and six rebounds and River Baldwin notched 14 points and seven rebounds. Baldwin shot a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor, and it’s the most points that the senior transfer from Florida State has ever scored in the ACC Tournament.

“Those two are very efficient inside,” Moore said. “And when we get them the ball, they score.”

Jakia-Brown Turner added 16 points and Madison Hayes chipped in 10. Sophomore guard Aziaha James — making just the fourth start of her career — stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals for the Wolfpack.

“The opportunity just presented itself for the ball to go down inside,” Hobby said. “River had a great game. Jakia had a great game. I feel like a lot of people had the opportunity to impact the game today.”

Syracuse (18-12) was led by Teisha Hyman’s 15 points, Georgia Wooley’s 14 points and Dyaisha Fair’s 11 points and six assists. Projected as an NCAA Tournament bubble team by ESPN, this was a game Syracuse needed to win to boost its postseason resume.

“This is their stage. You’re talking about the team that’s been here and won it three times in a row,” first-year Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack said of N.C. State. “We had our backs against the wall, and these young ladies said bring it on, and we really tried and gave it our best effort. And the best team won today, and that’s the truth… We left it all out there. There was no more juice in the Orange.”

Things went well for the Orange early, as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead to open the game, but N.C. State quickly got its act together and responded with a 12-4 run. N.C. State ended the first quarter leading 17-12, largely thanks to Baldwin who scored eight points on four shot attempts in eight minutes off the bench in the opening period.

“I knew I had a size advantage going in,” the 6-foot-5 Baldwin said. “We’re always talking about getting paint touches, paint points. When we can get it inside, you can’t really guard us, because we have shooters on the outside for kickouts.”

N.C. State helped Syracuse stay in the game by turning the ball over nine times in the first half, which the Orange flipped into 13 points — half of their scoring total at halftime.

The Orange cut the deficit to a single possession early in the third quarter, but the Wolfpack finally created some space between themselves and Syracuse by embarking on a 17-6 run to go ahead by 14 points. James tallied four points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal during that crucial span for the Wolfpack.

“That was the dog energy,” James said. “My teammates and my coaches just encouraged me and picked me up. I had my ups and downs in the first half. I just came out thinking, ‘We’re going to get this win.’ I had high confidence, just thinking about winning.”

Brown-Turner’s 3-pointer with 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter gave N.C. State its largest lead of the game at 25 points.

The Wolfpack advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals now for the eighth-straight year. Awaiting them is top-seed Notre Dame, which won the ACC’s regular season title. What is unclear is if the Irish will have All-ACC First Team selection and Lieberman Award finalist Olivia Miles available to play. Miles — who averaged 14.3 points and 6.9 assists per game — suffered what appeared to be a knee injury in the Irish’s regular season finale at Louisville on Sunday.

N.C. State beat Notre Dame — with Miles — on Jan. 29 by four points.

“They’re really balanced,” Baldwin said of Notre Dame. “You have to shoot over (Sonia) Citron. Olivia, we don’t know if she’ll play, but she’s a good scorer and a good facilitator, and they’ve got bodies in the post. They’re very balanced. We just have to match up.”

Thursday’s quarterfinal clash between the Wolfpack and Irish tips off at 2 p.m.

This story was originally published March 2, 2023 at 4:31 PM.