NC State women's basketball dramatically reaches Elite Eight
For three straight NCAA Tournaments, NC State women’s basketball has been eliminated in the Sweet 16 round.
Up until about 15 seconds to go, that streak looked bound to be four in a row.
Then super senior guard Raina Perez, hero of the ACC Championship Game win over Louisville a season ago with a last season game winner, further etched herself into the memory books of NC State women’s basketball.
NC State was trailing 63-61 when senior center Elissa Cunane was fouled with 36.8 seconds to go. After making the first free throw, Cunane missed the second. Notre Dame rebounded and called timeout with 35.0 seconds to go.
With just a five-second difference between game and shot clocks and needing four fouls to put Notre Dame on the line, the Pack faced tough odds.
Perez fouled once, and NC State twice knocked inbound passes from Notre Dame out of bounds. Finally, the Irish had a clean entry to star freshman guard Olivia Miles. Miles passed it to senior guard Dara Mabrey, and that’s when Perez pounced.
“She turned her back, the ball was stuck on her hip, so I went for it,” Perez noted.
Perez’s clean steal led to an uncontested breakaway layup with 14.8 seconds to go that gave the Wolfpack its first lead since Notre Dame tied it 16-16 with 9:12 left in the second quarter.
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Notre Dame sophomore forward Maddy Westbeld missed a three-pointer on the next possession, and Perez grabbed the defensive rebound. She calmly made two free throws with 1.5 seconds to go.
“Beyonce is big, but Raina blows her away,” NC State head coach Wes Moore joked.
“That show ‘Everybody Love Raymond?’ It’s going to be ‘Everybody Loves Raina,’” Moore added.
NC State outscored Notre Dame 20-10 in the fourth quarter, sparked by several big plays from super senior guard Kai Crutchfield. Nicknamed “Clutchfield,” she scored seven of her 14 points in the fourth and added three steals.
Cunane contributed a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The victory improves NC State to 32-3 on the season and advances the Wolfpack to the program’s first Elite Eight since the Final Four run of 1998. The victory also avenges the lone ACC setback in 21 conference games, counting the league tournament, during the season for the Pack.
NC State will face the winner of Saturday afternoon’s Indiana-Connecticut game at 7 p.m. on Monday evening for a trip to the Final Four.
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