Pack snaps out of it: 3 takeaways from NC State women’s basketball’s opening win over ETSU
Zoe Brooks giggled on the sideline as N.C. State watched highlights from the 2024 Final Four run, a celebration during the Portland regional captured on video. The Wolfpack watched as the banner dropped from the ceiling at Reynolds Coliseum, commemorating the accomplishment.
“It was a great feeling to see it go down,” guard Madison Hayes said. “It’s been a while since that’s happened here, so I’m really excited to be a part of that and just the honor to be at NC State and represent them.”
On a night of celebration, it was also a night of learning for N.C. State women’s basketball. The Wolfpack defeated East Tennessee State, 80-55, on Tuesday night to begin its 2024-25 campaign, but the win wasn’t without some early hiccups.
While the score topped the average margin of victory (13 points) of the teams’ past two meetings, it wasn’t a pretty victory. Both teams got out to slow starts. ETSU opened the game 0 of 8 from the field and scored just eight points in the first quarter. N.C. State wasn’t much better — the Pack was 4 of 11, with just one 3-pointer, and far too many lost possessions from turnovers.
Neither team scored more than 30 points in the first half.
“I don’t like excuses, but Zoe, Aziaha (James) and Madison missed a couple of weeks of practice, missed the exhibition game,” N.C. State head coach Wes Moore said. “Maybe it did take them a little time to get their groove on, but, again, not really into excuses. We gotta figure it out.”
The two programs finally found a little bit of rhythm after the intermission, though it leaned in favor of the Pack. N.C. State broke away in the fourth quarter, scoring 23 points on 10 of 18 shooting. It ended the game on a 16-3 run and held the Buccaneers to eight points.
Four players scored in double figures. Guard Zoe Brooks led all players with a career-high 21 points. She added four rebounds and four assists.
The Wolfpack also added 49 rebounds, including 21 on the offensive glass. It pulled down 13 o-boards in the second half.
“Give East Tennessee State credit. They came in here the first half and played really well and confident. They were the aggressor,” Moore said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we still gotta figure a lot of things out rotation wise. I’m sure it’s going to be different people every night, but (it’s) good to get the first game under our belt, and now we get ready for the big dogs.”
Here are three takeaways from the Wolfpack’s season opener:
Early turnovers create problems
N.C. State ended the 2023-24 season ranked tenth in the nation after committing just 12.1 turnovers per game. Though the team returned a number of major contributors from that roster, it did not start the season with the same clean ball handling or decision making.
The Wolfpack recorded seven turnovers in the first quarter, and 12 total in the opening half. The Buccaneers scored 10 points off of the errors.
Brooks committed two straight turnovers — a pass out of bounds and travel — to open the contest. That issue continued throughout the first half. The team cleaned things up after the break, but it still finished with 14 turnovers and committed one on 22% of its possessions. At one point, that was above 30%.
It wasn’t limited to a specific type of mistake, either. Players were called for travels, double dribbles, offensive fouls and throwing the ball out of bounds.
“I felt like I was turning the ball over in the beginning because I wasn’t aggressive,” said Brooks, who had three turnovers. “I feel like I still had to get my jitters out, but when I started being more aggressive, I feel like that’s when the floor started opening up and I started stopped turning the ball over.”
Last season, N.C. State logged a season-high 17 turnovers against Kentucky on Nov. 23 in the 2023 Paradise Jam. It recorded more than its season average 19 times, while keeping that number under 10 nine times.
In its NCAA Tournament run, the team averaged just 8.6 turnovers per game and finished above 10 turnovers in its Elite Eight and Final Four games. If it wants to have similar success, it will need to clean those up quickly.
Wolfpack offense lacked movement
After the team’s exhibition win over Anderson, in which the Wolfpack committed 16 turnovers, Moore attributed many of the mistakes to poor movement. The team didn’t move the ball well nor did the players move well away from the ball.
“We’ve got to get the ball moving, get ourselves moving and spread the floor, so we can take advantage of gaps; maybe get a post seal,” Moore said last week. “We’re just coming down and taking somebody off the dribble and putting a shot up.”
The team shot 11 of 28 in the first half and recorded just four assists on Tuesday night. It finished 32 of 67 from the field but only eight assists.
Hayes was surprised to see the team only had eight assists.
“It felt like we were sharing the ball a lot more. You can tell the ball was moving around a lot more,” Hayes said. “I think that was the main thing, not just letting it stick in one person’s hand and trying to do one-on-one all game, because it doesn’t work. It showed in the first half.”
Moore also felt like the team did a better job testing the Buccaneers’ defense, getting into the paint and setting other players up for plays instead of settling for 3s.
Much of the program’s success last season came from its effective offensive movement. It averaged 13.4 assists per game for the entire season and 11.4 assists in the postseason. The Wolfpack’s only NCAA Tournament game with fewer than 10 assists was its Final Four matchup against South Carolina.
This will be an area to watch. With six ACC teams making appearances in the Associated Press preseason top 25 and three others receiving votes, the Pack needs to get back into an offensive rhythm for success.
Aziaha James returns to court
Aziaha James has been limited the last several weeks due to a minor knee injury. In her return on Tuesday, she had one of the most efficient performances of all players.
James finished with 17 points, nine rebounds, one assist and steal. The preseason All-ACC selection added a few deflections and drew a charge in the first half. In total, she drew six fouls. James averaged 16.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season.
Moore said that’s going to be a requirement this season: exceptional play from his older players.
“Our veteran guards have got to be really good,” Moore said. “We just can’t afford for them to have off nights. They’ve got to be ready to play and play extremely well and disciplined on both ends of the floor.”
This early in the season, with such a limited sample size, it’s hard to tell who will become major contributors. James, however, looked like she could be a do-it-all kind of player with a more well-rounded season.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 9:02 PM.
