PORTLAND, Ore. – NC State girls’s basketball is headed to the NCAA Division I Ladies’s Basketball Closing 4 for simply the second time in program historical past and the primary time since 1998. The Wolfpack punched its ticket to the nationwide semifinal by beating fourth-ranked and one-seeded Texas by a 76-66 rating in Sunday afternoon’s Portland 4 regional last.
NC State strikes on to Cleveland, Ohio, the place the Closing 4 (Friday, April 5) and nationwide championship (Sunday, April 7) video games shall be performed on the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. The Wolfpack is the seventh group in NCAA Division I girls’s basketball historical past to begin the season unranked within the AP High 25 and attain the Closing 4. The 1997-98 Wolfpack squad additionally beforehand completed that feat.
5 Wolfpack gamers scored in double figures, NC State’s first time having that many gamers achieve this in an NCAA Match recreation since its final journey to the Elite Eight in 2022.
Aziaha James led the group in scoring for the fourth time in as many NCAA Match video games performed this season with 27 factors on the night time. She set a brand new program report for many three pointers made in a single recreation, taking pictures 7-of-9 from past the arc. It additionally marked essentially the most threes hit in any recreation by a member of the Pack since Jan. 30, 2020.
River Baldwin scored 16 factors, 12 of these within the fourth quarter, whereas Saniya Rivers added 11 factors and 5 assists, Zoe Brooks had 10 factors and three assists and Mimi Collins contributed 10 factors.
The Wolfpack lit it up from distance within the second interval with a 4-of-7 mark from behind the arc. Aziaha James hit three of these herself to complete with an ideal 5-of-5 mark from three-point vary and 21 factors within the first half, her fifth time this season posting 20+ factors in a single half.
NC State went on a 9-0 run that spanned lower than a minute of the second quarter to place its lead into double figures (31-20) on the 6:30 mark, and Texas scored the final 5 of the half to place the Pack’s benefit at 12 (43-31) after 20 minutes.
After going up by as many as 18 factors (40-22, 3:02) within the second quarter, NC State went by a dry spell within the third. The Wolfpack went almost three and a half minutes with out scoring, and Texas went on an 11-3 run to attract inside six factors (54-5, 1:06). James hit her sixth three of the sport on the Pack’s final possession of the third quarter to ship NC State to the fourth up 9 (57-48), and the Pack by no means let Texas get nearer than seven factors within the last interval.
The Wolfpack strikes on to tackle top-ranked South Carolina within the nationwide semifinal on Friday, April 5. That recreation will tip off at both 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. on ESPN, and finalized recreation time and different data shall be posted on the GoPack schedule web page when accessible.
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