North Carolina State University Athletics
#21/#24 Wolfpack Women to Face Wake Forest
2/8/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The Wolfpack: NC State has won three consecutive games and enters tonight's contest ranked #21 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll and #24 in the Associated Press poll. After struggling to a disappointing 2-6 mark in the first half of the conference slate, the Wolfpack Women are off to a 3-0 start in the second half of the ACC season. The NC State defense is ranked eighth in the nation in scoring defense (56.6). NC State is led by the inside-outside combination of Carisse Moody (14.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and Tynesha Lewis (13.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.7 apg).
The Opponent: Wake Forest has suffered three straight conference losses, but have been in the game at the end with opportunity to win. The Deacons took #24 Virginia to two overtimes in Charlottesville before falling 76-73 and then gave #4 Duke a scare before the Blue Devils pulled out a 66-58 victory.
Wake Forest has a balanced scoring attack with four players averaging double figures. Kristen Shaffer leads the Deacs with 11.3 points per outing, followed by Eafton Hill (11.0), Olivia Dardy (10.2) and Brenda Kirkpatrick (10.1).
Tonight's Matchup: A win tonight will move to the Pack back to .500 (6-6) in league play where they can challenge for the second seed for the ACC tournament. Heading into tonight's conference slate, four teams are tied for second place with identical 6-5 records.
Probable Starters:
NC State
G - 20 Tynesha Lewis (5-10, senior, 13.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.7 apg)
G - 32 Ivy Gardner (5-9, sophomore, 6.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg)
C - 44 Carisse Moody (6-1, sophomore, 14.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
F - 25 Monica Bates (6-2, senior, 4.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
F - 45 Talisha Scates (6-1, junior, 5.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg)
Wake Forest
G - 10 Val Klopfer (5-4, junior, 3.0 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 2.5 apg)
G - 20 Kristen Shaffer (5-10, senior, 11.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg)
C - 24 Tiffani Listenbee (6-1, sophomore, 3.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
F - 40 Eafton Hill (6-1, freshman, 11.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg)
F - 50 Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick (6-0, senior, 10.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg)
The Series: NC State leads the all-time series with Wake Forest, 43-5. Four of the five losses have come in Winston-Salem. The last time the Wolfpack lost at Wake Forest was on Jan. 23, 1996 when the Deacons pulled out a 76-72 upset of the Pack.
Last Meeting: These two teams met in Raleigh on Jan. 7, 2001 with NC State coming away with a 75-35 victory. The Wolfpack shot 51.9 percent for the game while holding the Deacons to only 31.9 percent. NC State held a huge 42-19 advantage on the boards and outscored Wake by 14 points at the free throw line. Tynesha Lewis led NC State with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists. Talisha Scates scored 13 points and Carisse Moody added 10 points and seven rebounds. Eafton Hill was Wake Forest's lone player in double figures with 10 points.
The Coaches: Head Coach Kay Yow, in her 26th season on the Wolfpack bench, recently reached the 600th career win milestone. She has a 546-231 (.702) record at NC State and a 603-250 (.706) overall collegiate coaching mark. One of the most successful coaches in the country, she currently ranks fifth in career wins.
Charlene Curtis is 30-75 in her fourth season on the Wake Forest sidelines. She owns a 192-225 overall mark as a collegiate head coach.
Last Time Out: NC State came from behind to upset #17 Clemson 56-50 Sunday at Littlejohn Coliseum. Monica Bates paced the Wolfpack with a season-high 15 points.
Wake Forest dropped a 72-60 decision to North Carolina on Sunday in Chapel Hill. Olivia Dardy came off the bench to lead the Demon Deacons with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Up Next: The Wolfpack Women play its third consecutive road game next Thursday at Georgia Tech. The 7 p.m. matchup will be televised live by Fox Sports South.
