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NC State women's basketball clinches top seed in ACC Tournament

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•02/20/22•

TheWolfpacker

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Photo courtesy NC State women's basketball

NC State women’s basketball was saying goodbye to perhaps its greatest Senior Day class in school history, and there was the chance to clinch its first ACC regular season title in 32 years in the process.

Syracuse, in hindsight, probably did not stand much of a chance.

NC State jumped out to a 28-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and led 48-26 at halftime on its way to a dominating 95-53 win at sold out Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh Sunday afternoon.

In the final home games for guards Raina Perez and Kai Crutchfield, forward Kayla Jones and center Elissa Cunane, each made valuable contributions to the win. Jones led all scorers with 18 points, while Cunane nearly had a double-double with 14 points and nine boards.

Perez added nine points and four assists, and Crutchfield had five points and four rebounds.

Junior guard Jakia Brown-Turner also had a big performance with 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

The Pack could still share the regular season’s top conference record with Louisville, but the best the Cards can do is tie NC State in the standings. Earlier in the season, the Wolfpack used a dramatic fourth quarter rally to defeat Louisville at Reynolds Coliseum, ensuring the tiebreaker advantage.

As the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., NC State will not play until the quarterfinals on Friday, March 4 at 2 p.m., against the winner of the previous day’s No. 8 and No. 9 seeds showdown. Currently, that would be Boston College and Florida State, who each have an 8-8 record in league play.  

NC State would also play in game one of the ACC Tournament semifinals the following day if it advances.

NC State improved to 25-3 on the season and 16-1 in the ACC. The Pack was a perfect 9-0 in ACC home games. It will conclude the regular season with a date at Virginia Tech next Sunday, a 6 p.m. tipoff on ACC Network.

Head coach Wes Moore has won at least 25 games in five of his nine seasons at NC State, and in a COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season the Pack went 22-3. NC State has also won double-digit ACC games in all but one of Moore’s seasons.

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