North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Plays No. 16 Vanderbilt Thursday
1/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- Over the next week, NC State women's basketball coach Kay Yow will find out if what she believes is true. As the unranked Wolfpack hits the road for three of its next four games - including a trip Thursday to No. 16 Vanderbilt - Yow should find out if her Pack, which was picked to finish seventh in the newly expanded ACC race in the preseason, really is a contender for the league championship.
She thinks it is.
"I think we are under-estimated a little bit,'' Yow said after her team's 81-55 win over Wake Forest Monday night.
That would change with a win on Thursday in Nashville, Tenn. The Lady Commodores (11-1) are athletic, with strong interior play and one of the nation's top scorers in guard Ashley Earley. In the most recent NCAA statistics, Vanderbilt is No. 2 in the nation in scoring offense, putting up 88.1 points per game, and leads the country in scoring margin.
But the Wolfpack (11-2) - thanks in part to interior players like junior Tiffany Stansbury, sophomore Marquetta Dickens and freshman Khadijah Whittington - has been one of the best defensive teams in women's basketball, holding opponents to around 50 points a game.
So which will win, a productive offense or a stingy defense? Yow certainly isn't about to make any predictions, but she definitely sees the game as more of an opportunity than a challenge for her team, which has played well on the road at times, winning both the Paradise Jam and the St. Peter's Holiday Classic.
"We will get to go against a strong team that has been playing really well,'' Yow said. "What I think we are going to find out about against Vanderbilt is our post defense. I think that can be a game that can really help us to see what we need to do. That's a great bonus game for us.
"If we could win that game, we should be moving close to being a ranked team."
Yow's team is already off to a much better start than last year, when the Wolfpack lost its first five ACC games before turning the season around and earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament. By beating the Demon Deacons on Monday, there's no chance of a similar slow start.
Yow has always said that the thing she likes most about this team is its versatility and its athletic ability. That has revealed itself more on the defensive end, where the Wolfpack leads the nation in fewest points allowed per game. It is also one of the top teams in the country in creating turnovers, getting nearly 13 steals per game.
The Wolfpack defense held Wake, which entered Monday's game among the top 10 scoring teams in the nation, to just 55 points, some 24 points below its average.
There aren't a lot of Wolfpack players ranked among the top 10 in many individual statistical categories, but Stansbury is clearly the player to stop for opponents. But because there are other offensive options, it's not always easy just to concentrate on one player. Monday, the Demon Deacons tried to collapse on Stansbury in a zone defense, which left plenty of opportunity for outside shots.
Junior Billie McDowell took advantage of that opportunity and poured in a career-high 27 points, as Yow's team hit 69 percent of its first-half field goals. Guard Ashley Key added another 15 points, all in the first half, as the Pack built a comfortable lead almost immediately.
Wake Forest coach Mike Petersen, whose team had been off to one of its best starts in recent memory, including an upset of nationally ranked Houston, was impressed with what he saw, and doesn't buy Yow's assessment that the Wolfpack is under-estimated.
By who, the media or the polls?" Petersen said. "I think they are really good. I think they are capable of winning our league. They are really athletic, they play hard, they have very good shooters, they rebound the ball, they defend really well. They sound like a really good team to me."
Yow - and everybody else who follows women's college basketball closely - should find out just how good after Thursday's trip to Vanderbilt.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
