NC State's defensive woes compound in loss to UNC

North Carolina hit double-digit threes during an 80-70 upset win over No. 6 NC State Thursday night. Two players, senior guard Lexi Donarski and senior forward Alexandra Zelaya, combined to hit 9 triples.

Zelaya come into the contest with 6 made field goals on the season, 5 from three. Donarski is the Tar Heels’ leading shooter from behind the arc with 64 triples. No one else on the team has made more than 27, and UNC is the No. 12 three-point shooting team in the ACC at 30.3 percent as a team.

The Tar Heels scored 80 points against the Pack— the program’ second-consecutive game giving up that many points. An opponent had not recorded 80 points in regulation against the Wolfpack since the Nov. 12 UConn win.

“They hit 11 out of 21,” head coach Wes Moore said after the game. “That’s hard to do, but we’re not playing horse. You had a chance to guard them, and we didn’t guard them.”

Moore said the Wolfpack puts together a fairly simplistic scouting report for each game. NC State’s staff identifies each player’s strengths and points out to the players what they need to take away. They knew Donarski and Zelaya thrive behind the arc.

NC State always avoids leaving a shooter on defense until the ball has reversed to the other side of the court, per the staff’s instruction. Against the Tar Heels, the Wolfpack did not follow that game plan at times, and it led to open looks.

“They were knocking down shots, contested and uncontested,” junior guard Saniya Rivers said. “Hats off to them. They came in knowing what they needed to do and they did it successfully unfortunately.”

Georgia Tech and North Carolina have combined to hit 22 threes against NC State over the past two games. Rivers said the Pack’s recent defensive struggles are not an focus issue, but there’s still room to improve the team’s collective mentality.

“Could we buy in more? Absolutely,” Rivers said. “Could we be more urgent? Absolutely, and that’s just what we have to do.”

Junior guard Aziaha James, who led the Wolfpack in scoring with 24, echoed a similar sentiment and said that the team needs to continue emphasizing the scouting report. After the loss, she said NC State should have done a better job boxing out in the first half and closing off the baseline defensively.

Earlier this month, the Wolfpack held consecutive opponents to fewer than 50 points on the road, including a ranked Notre Dame squad. Now the team is looking for a resurgence on that end of the court.

“At some point, they’ve got to buy in,” Moore said. “I’ve got to make sure I hold them accountable, and we’ve got to fix it. Maybe we read our press clippings too much after the Notre Dame game.”

Rivers paused for a moment during the post game press conference when asked if she could identify one part of the Pack’s approach that led to this loss. She landed on the team’s intensity.

NC State started the game hot, jumping out to a 13-6 lead in the first quarter. The Wolfpack point guard said the team has to do a better job of maintaining that high level of play.

“We should have wanted it more,” Rivers said. “It doesn’t matter if we came in saying ‘Okay we want it more.’ We have to show that for 40 minutes. We came out blazing in the first three, five minutes, but we just have to put 40 minutes together.”

With just three regular season matchups remaining, NC State will spend the next few days preparing to bounce back against Duke on the road— a Sunday evening clash with tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m..

The Wolfpack’s offense doesn’t concern Moore right now. He said 70 points should have been enough to win the game. NC State’s issues begin on the defense.

“We can’t give up 80 points,” Moore said. “You just can’t do it and be successful, especially in this league and on the road. We’ve got to do a better job and got to get back to work. It doesn’t get any easier.”