NC State hopes to use ACC Championship loss as motivation in NCAA Tournament

GREENSBORO — NC State’s locker room was quiet. Players sat in their stalls, looking down on their phones with a blank face. The Wolfpack, after all, expected to win its fourth ACC Tournament title in the last six years when it squared off with Duke on Sunday afternoon. 

The Blue Devils, however, had other plans. Duke blitzed NC State after halftime, throwing haymakers that the Wolfpack didn’t have an answer for. That led to a 76-62 Duke win at First Horizon Coliseum, leaving NC State to walk off the court empty handed. 

It was a familiar feeling for most of the players inside the Pack’s locker room, just a short walk from the playing surface that was littered with blue confetti as the Blue Devils celebrated their first conference crown in 12 years. NC State was in this exact same position a year ago as Notre Dame raced past the Wolfpack for the league title. 

The Pack was able to use that as motivation last year to make its first run to the Final Four in 25 years. And NC State hopes it can find the same answer it had for the second straight season after disappointment in Greensboro. 

“I hope we can learn from it,” Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said. “We were in this same position a year ago, and it stinks. But we’ve got to try to hope it’s a wake-up call and we can bounce back and start a new season with the NCAAs.”

NC State was outscored 47-26 in the second half, aided by a rebounding battle it lost by 18 in the period. It wasn’t the prettiest half of basketball as the Wolfpack’s missed shots led to its defense lacking, and the Blue Devils knocked down 55.2 percent of their attempts in the final 20 minutes to coast to the top of the ACC. 

While the loss stung in the moment, NC State is well aware of what lies ahead. It has just under two weeks before it has to play again in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, enough time for the squad to refind its footing before a win-or-go-home stretch begins. 

For most on the team, that means taking a break from basketball. Senior guard Saniya Rivers, who scored 16 points with five rebounds and four assists in the championship game, will celebrate her belated 22nd birthday as she looks to keep her mind fresh. 

The Wolfpack’s do-it-all guard hopes that the rest of the squad will follow in finding things outside of the sport over the next three days until practice resumes on Thursday. 

“I don’t plan on touching a ball,” Rivers said. “I take a lot of pride on the mental aspect. … I tell the freshmen, you have to lock in on the mental aspect because your mind tells your body how to react. If you’re strong mentally, then you’ll be strong physically.”

Being strong mentally is important, but the Wolfpack is banged up heading back to Raleigh. Star guard Aziaha James, who left the semifinals and final for brief moments with injuries, is looking to recover and be 100 percent for the NCAA Tournament. She took a hard fall against Duke, sending her to the locker room in a wheelchair late in the first half before returning when the third quarter began.

In addition to recovering from the bumps and bruises that the Wolfpack has picked up through its 22 wins in the last 25 games it’s played, NC State wants to use the loss as a positive. It showed where the team can improve, most notably rebounding and taking care of the basketball against an elite defensive team (11 turnovers). 

The Wolfpack was able to do just that a year ago with its Final Four appearance in Cleveland by the end of March. NC State has turned the page towards the first two games of the NCAA Tournament, which are a lock to be played inside Reynolds Coliseum as a projected No. 2 seed. 

“Our season’s not over with, so we’re not over,” James said. “We’re going to keep going hard, keep looking to ourselves, look at the mistakes we did today and improve on those mistakes. We’re going to be ready for the next team that’s coming.”

Although the Wolfpack was disappointed in the loss — rightfully so — no one in its locker room was panicking. Most of the team’s key players have been in this spot, and they’re confident that it might be able to spark another deep postseason run. 

“We’ve still got the NCAA Tournament,” senior guard Madison Hayes said. “This didn’t define us last year, so it shouldn’t define us this year.”