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NC State women's basketball stuns No. 3 Louisville with dominant fourth

MattCarterby:Matt Carter•01/20/22•

TheWolfpacker

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NC State women's basketball guard Diamond Johnson (Photo courtesy NC State)

The No. 4-ranked NC State women’s basketball turned in a fourth quarter performance worthy of its top-five status in stunning No. 3 Louisville, 68-59, in front of a sold out, raucous crowd at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh.

A strong second quarter by the Cards, in which it outscored NC State 16-6, gave Louisville a 34-21 advantage at the break, and within a minute into the second half that was extended to 16 points at 39-23.

NC State did not get much closer throughout the third, trailing 51-37 going into the final frame.

Then came an epic final 10 minutes for NC State women’s basketball.

For three quarters, the Pack could not buy a three-pointer, struggled with turnovers and was being dominated by Louisville on the Cards’ offensive glass.

Fueled by sophomore guard Diamond Johnson, the Pack flipped the script and blitzed Louisville with a 31-4 run to take a 68-55 advantage with less than a minute to go. Johnson made 5 of 7 shots in the decisive fourth, including 3 of 4 threes, for 14 points. Prior to that, Johnson had made 1 of 12 attempts, missing all five of her threes.

She would almost double Louisville’s entire quarter output of eight points.

Junior guard Jakia Brown-Turner added 10 of her 14 points during the decisive run. Senior center Elissa Cunane added a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds.

The win was the third straight for NC State over Louisville, the two premier programs in the ACC over the past three seasons, and it improved the Wolfpack’s record to 17-2 on the season, including 8-0 in the ACC.

NC State is 5-2 against teams currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. It has also defeated Kansas State, who fell out of the ranking this week but is still receiving votes.

The Cards fell to 15-2, having its 15-game winning streak snapped, and 5-1 in the conference.

NC State women’s basketball is next scheduled to host Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. in a game televised on ACC Network.

Watch NC State women’s basketball coach Wes Moore’s postgame press conference, featuring Johnson and Brown-Turner, below.

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