North Carolina State University Athletics
Hot-shooting Pack Women Roll Over Arizona, 80-47
11/21/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. A year ago, just as she was about to board a plane with her team for a game at Arizona, Kay Yow was told by her doctors that she would have to begin immediate, aggressive treatment to combat the return of her Stage IV breast cancer.
She was not on the bench for the Wolfpack’s 68-66 overtime loss to the Wildcats, and ended up taking a two-month leave-of-absence from her team.
Maybe that’s why she was so grateful that this year’s Thanksgiving week started with Tuesday night’s 80-47 victory over those same Wildcats, four days shy of that dubious anniversary.
“It seems like such a long, long time ago that we went through that,” said Yow, whose inspired return led the Wolfpack to the ACC Tournament championship game and a berth in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. “I’m extremely happy to be back here on the bench with my team now.”
Especially considering how well her team played, shooting 52.8 percent from the field and making nine of 14 3-point shots, nearly double the team’s best long-range shooting percentage of the season.
“The whole key to that shooting percentage is better shot selection,” Yow said.
The Wolfpack (4-1 overall) started the game with back-to-back 3-pointers by Megan Zullo and Nikitta Gartrell and never trailed in the game. Even when forward Kahadijah Whittington, the team’s co-captain and lone senior, picked up her third foul barely eight minutes into the game and spent the rest of the first half on the bench, Yow’s team increased its lead from seven points to 18 before intermission.
It was an important growth step for a team that Yow calls her youngest in 33 years at NC State, with its 11 sophomores and freshmen.
“They didn’t panic when KD went out,” Yow said. “They handled it well, which is what we needed to do in that situation.”
Sophomore Sharnise Beal, the Pack’s most consistent off-the-bench scorer in the season’s first four games, poured in nine of her team’s 11 points during immediately before and after Whittington went out of the game. By halftime, Beal had 12 points, four more than her previous career high. She finished the game with a game-high 16 points to lead four Wolfpack players in double-figures.
“I could tell they were going to play a lot of zone on us, which we will see all year long,” said Beal, who made five of her six shots on the night. “And I knew the best way to beat the zone was to penetrate and break it down, and I was able to do that a couple of times.”
It was the kind of intensity that Yow has been waiting to see out of the 5-foot-9 guard from New Britain, Ct.
“If she can play with that kind of intensity, she can be a premier player in the ACC,” Yow said.
Whittington returned in the second half, finishing the game with 11 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes of action. It was her fifth consecutive double-double to start the season.
The Wolfpack, which just returned from road trip to the TD Banknorth Classic in Burlington, Vt., where it lost to St. John’s and beat Brown, leaves early Wednesday morning for a Thanksgiving trip to the Junkaroo Jam in Freeport, Bahamas. State will face Washington State on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and the winner of the Alabama-Eastern Michigan game on Saturday at 1 or 3:30 p.m.
“This is a tough part of the season for me, because of all the travel,” said Yow, who will have a private nurse with her as the team heads out of the country. “It’s hard to get enough rest. But we will be in the Bahamas early on Wednesday and have all of Thursday to relax a little.”
For that, among many other things, Yow is thankful.
RALEIGH, N.C. A year ago, just as she was about to board a plane with her team for a game at Arizona, Kay Yow was told by her doctors that she would have to begin immediate, aggressive treatment to combat the return of her Stage IV breast cancer.
She was not on the bench for the Wolfpack’s 68-66 overtime loss to the Wildcats, and ended up taking a two-month leave-of-absence from her team.
Maybe that’s why she was so grateful that this year’s Thanksgiving week started with Tuesday night’s 80-47 victory over those same Wildcats, four days shy of that dubious anniversary.
“It seems like such a long, long time ago that we went through that,” said Yow, whose inspired return led the Wolfpack to the ACC Tournament championship game and a berth in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. “I’m extremely happy to be back here on the bench with my team now.”
Especially considering how well her team played, shooting 52.8 percent from the field and making nine of 14 3-point shots, nearly double the team’s best long-range shooting percentage of the season.
“The whole key to that shooting percentage is better shot selection,” Yow said.
The Wolfpack (4-1 overall) started the game with back-to-back 3-pointers by Megan Zullo and Nikitta Gartrell and never trailed in the game. Even when forward Kahadijah Whittington, the team’s co-captain and lone senior, picked up her third foul barely eight minutes into the game and spent the rest of the first half on the bench, Yow’s team increased its lead from seven points to 18 before intermission.
It was an important growth step for a team that Yow calls her youngest in 33 years at NC State, with its 11 sophomores and freshmen.
“They didn’t panic when KD went out,” Yow said. “They handled it well, which is what we needed to do in that situation.”
Sophomore Sharnise Beal, the Pack’s most consistent off-the-bench scorer in the season’s first four games, poured in nine of her team’s 11 points during immediately before and after Whittington went out of the game. By halftime, Beal had 12 points, four more than her previous career high. She finished the game with a game-high 16 points to lead four Wolfpack players in double-figures.
“I could tell they were going to play a lot of zone on us, which we will see all year long,” said Beal, who made five of her six shots on the night. “And I knew the best way to beat the zone was to penetrate and break it down, and I was able to do that a couple of times.”
It was the kind of intensity that Yow has been waiting to see out of the 5-foot-9 guard from New Britain, Ct.
“If she can play with that kind of intensity, she can be a premier player in the ACC,” Yow said.
Whittington returned in the second half, finishing the game with 11 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes of action. It was her fifth consecutive double-double to start the season.
The Wolfpack, which just returned from road trip to the TD Banknorth Classic in Burlington, Vt., where it lost to St. John’s and beat Brown, leaves early Wednesday morning for a Thanksgiving trip to the Junkaroo Jam in Freeport, Bahamas. State will face Washington State on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and the winner of the Alabama-Eastern Michigan game on Saturday at 1 or 3:30 p.m.
“This is a tough part of the season for me, because of all the travel,” said Yow, who will have a private nurse with her as the team heads out of the country. “It’s hard to get enough rest. But we will be in the Bahamas early on Wednesday and have all of Thursday to relax a little.”
For that, among many other things, Yow is thankful.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
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