North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack wants no more early exits
3/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 18, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - It's not often that someone from NC State will admit to looking at arch-rival North Carolina for a little inspiration. But the Wolfpack women's basketball team need only look 25 miles to the west to know why it has to stay focused in its first-round game Saturday against Middle Tennessee State.
Last year in South Bend, Ind., MTSU upset the fourth-seeded Tar Heels, 67-62.
"Knowing that they went in and beat Carolina in the first round last year is definitely motivation for us," said junior shooter Rachel Stockdale. "We know we definitely need to go into the first game focused and with intensity and get our trapping game going, and then we should be in good shape.
"Knowing they beat Carolina, who was one of the top teams in the country last year, but that is even more incentive for us to go in focused and determined."
The game between the fifth-seeded Wolfpack (21-7) and 12th-seeded and Sun Belt-champion MTSU (23-8) tips off at 7 p.m. Eastern at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
It's been two weeks since the Wolfpack played its last game, a 63-56 loss to Maryland in the first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. That loss left a bitter taste for the Wolfpack, which finished third in the ACC regular-season race.
"I think we learned an important lesson in that we have to come focused every game," said senior Kendra Bell "We have to go hard every game."
The fifth-seeded Wolfpack also had a brief appearance in last year's NCAA Tournament, losing to Auburn 79-59 in a first-round game in Bridgeport, Conn.
So, with no one on the roster who has ever experienced an NCAA Tournament victory, the Wolfpack isn't looking ahead to the next round.
"We know we need to get a win in the tournament," Stockdale said. "That's our main focus right now."
To do that, the Wolfpack will rely on its only four-year players, Bell and Stockdale, to keep everyone calm and focused, especially since everyone knows that with two wins the State could end up in Philadelphia, which is something Philly native Tiffany Stansbury is anxious to see.
But there are formidable opponents in the way of that.
"With all the new players, everybody wants to win two games because we want to go to the Sweet 16," Bell said. "And after that we want another two games. But we are not overlooking anyone at all.
"We want to go out there and work hard against them."
Or, the Wolfpack knows, they could end up as someone else's inspiration in the first-round of next year's tournament.
You may reach Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
