North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Women Off To A Flying Start
12/10/1999 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Cancun, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Miami. Sounds like a travel agent's dream, and a basketball team's nightmare. The Wolfpack Women joined the jet set on and off the court in November and find themselves with a number four national ranking and a perfect 7-0 record.
NC State didn't get much respect among the nation's women's basketball prognosticators in the pre-season publications. In fact, the media covering the Wolfpack Women in the Atlantic Coast Conference picked NC State to finish second in the league, behind North Carolina.
The first opponent was Rutgers, a consensus top five among those same "experts," only two of the first six games were in Reynolds Coliseum, and two freshmen were in the starting lineup. No wonder NC State was ranked 20th in the polls.
After polishing off a couple of exhibition opponents, coach Kay Yow's 25th edition of the Wolfpack Women headed to Knoxville to take on Rutgers. Yow was honored as one of 24 new inductees to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Her team responded with a 68-55 upset of Rutgers.
"This game was added to our schedule during the summer," said Yow, "but we couldn't pass up a chance to be on ESPN2." The two freshman starters made quite an impression on that national TV audience.
Terah James, a 5-7 point guard from West Palm Beach, Florida, scored 15 points and ran the team like a veteran. The NC State broadcast crew and ESPN's announcers named James the player of the game.
The other rookie, Kaayla Chones, played like a pro at power forward. Of course, her dad is a former NBA player with Cleveland and he must have been smiling as he watched Kaayla open her career with a 10 point effort.
Chones and James continued their strong play and the Wolfpack Women cruised past Southern Mississippi and UNC-Greensboro in the NC State tournament in Raleigh.
Then the bags were packed again and the Wolfpack Women logged 2500 miles in the air to Cancun, Mexico. They were ranked 7th in the nation when they knocked off Drake and Kansas State. Junior Tynesha Lewis was named the MVP of that doubleheader and Chones made the all-star team.
"I've never seen a team with this much chemistry," exclaimed sophomore Monica Bates, as she waited for the luggage to be unloaded at RDU International. "This is definitely the best team I've ever played on."
Bates and her teammates made it to a couple of classes after the return from Cancun, then headed for Atlanta. Georgia Tech was waiting for unbeaten NC State, who had climbed to number 6 in the polls.
When the plane landed in Raleigh on December 1, the Wolfpack Women had their first ACC win and were ready for some home cooking after flying nearly 4,000 miles and playing six games in 16 days.
After a win over Wake Forest in Reynolds, the team hit the books for exams. If the grades take off like the season has, look for some 4.0 GPA's to go alongside some impressive numbers on the court.
And by the way, the Wolfpack Women have another 1,500 mile flight left before Christmas. They'll face Miami on December 19 in the Orange Bowl Fab Four.
Fasten your seat belts for an exciting year of Wolfpack Women's basketball.
