North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Delaware State
No. 25 Pack Stops Delaware State, 76-58
12/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 12, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina State's players had to fight through a pesky opponent and the exam-week blues to stay unbeaten at home Sunday.
Tiffany Stansbury had 23 points and six rebounds while the 25th-ranked Wolfpack needed a strong second half to beat Delaware State 76-58, improving the Wolfpack to 22-1 all-time against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference teams.
Ashley Key scored 10 of her 14 points after halftime for the Wolfpack (6-2), who remained unbeaten in five home games this year.
Raquel Collier scored 23 points to lead the Hornets (4-2).
The Wolfpack shot 55 percent for the game, but the Hornets took a 35-29 rebounding edge against a team that had outrebounded every opponent by at least five boards. Delaware State went into the break tied at 34 before faltering against a team that looked a little sluggish early.
Wolfpack coach Kay Yow attributed some of that to exam week. The team didn't practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and Yow pointed to some of those late-night studying sessions as reasons her team was a little out of sync.
Still, it wasn't enough to cause an upset loss.
"Traditionally it's been a tough time for us to play," Wolfpack coach Kay Yow said. "We have some teams that come in during this time that are hungry, that have nothing to lose and want to prove what they can do."
Yow called Delaware State "a team that came in here fearless and just going for it."
Trailing 40-38, the Wolfpack tied the game at 40 on a putback by Stansbury with 16:21 left in the game. Then, Key put N.C. State ahead to stay when she jumped in front of a pass from Ashlee Burbage and raced in for a layup and a 42-40 lead with 16 minutes left.
Key had six straight points, and N.C. State took control a few minutes later with an 11-0 run, which began with a layup by Marquetta Dickens for a 52-46 lead with 11:52 left.
Stansbury scored twice in the spurt, which ended with a jumper from Monica Pope for a 61-46 lead with 7:13 to play. Stansbury finished 11-for-14 from the floor and had three blocks in 28 minutes, including 5-for-5 shooting after the break.
"I credit my game to Ashley," Stansbury said. "I posted up and she passed it a lot to me. I just kept posting up and looking for the ball."
Key went 4-for-5 in the second half and finished with seven assists and three steals. The Wolfpack shot 61 percent in the second half.
Delaware State had five straight misses during the decisive run and shot 9-for-24 in the second half.
"We didn't weather the storm as well as I thought we could have," Delaware State coach Ed Davis said.
Delaware State shot 41 percent in the first half, but scored seven second-chance points and had 12 offensive rebounds to hang around with the Wolfpack. N.C. State shot 50 percent in the half behind Stansbury's 13 points, but had little to show for it when Tyrah Lusby hit a jumper with about six seconds left to tie it at 34.
"We certainly never got ourselves going in the first half," Yow said.
