North Carolina State University Athletics
Strong Wolfpack defense suffocates Lehigh in 66-34 victory
12/22/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. – NC State’s defense forced a season-high 14 steals and allowed Lehigh to only shoot 28.3 percent in a 66-34 Wolfpack rout of the Mountain Hawks Friday afternoon at Reynolds Coliseum.
Shayla Fields scored a team-high 12 points for NC State (10-2), which has now won seven straight games, the longest such streak since 2004-05. The Pack has also won eight in a row at Reynolds to begin the season for just the third time in school history.
Marquetta Dickens added 10 points and six rebounds for NC State, while Amber White tossed in a career-high seven points off the bench.
Adrienne Blount led Lehigh (4-7) with 11 points and eight rebounds.
NC State opened the second half on a 21-6 run that took up most of the first 10 minutes of play to lead 48-22. Fields scored seven points in the early portion of the spurt, while Chanita Jordan capped it with a layup at the 10:36 mark.
Lehigh never got any closer than 21 points the remainder of the game. The lead would swell to its final margin on a 3-pointer by Danielle Wilhelm with 20 seconds remaining.
Later in the half, Dickens converted a fast-break layup and then followed that up with a put-back jumper in the lane and the Wolfpack were up 19-8 at the 7:25 mark.
The lead grew to 14, 23-9, on a layup by Chanita Jordan with 4:22 to go. Lehigh’s Alex Ross closed the half with jumper just before the buzzer sounded and the Pack went into the break leading 27-16.
NC State’s defense was in full force in the opening 20 minutes, limiting the Mountain Hawks to only shoot 27.3 percent (6-for-22) from the field. The Pack also forced 14 turnovers and turned them into 10 points.
NC State will enjoy the Christmas holiday, before getting back to work at the University of Florida tournament in Gainesville, Fla., on December 28 and 29. The Wolfpack will take on Nebraska on the 28th at 4:30 pm.
Pack Points
It was the first-ever meeting between the two schools…NC State has won 26 straight non-conference games at Reynolds…Today capped the longest home stretch in program history, six games…12 of the 13 players for NC State scored…The Pack held a commanding 42-8 edge in Points in the Paint and 16-0 in Fast Break Points.
