North Carolina State University Athletics
Women's Basketball Falls to Wake in ACC Tournament
3/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
GREENSBORO, N.C. NC State’s saddest season ended Thursday in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
The eighth-seeded Wolfpack, emotionally spent after three months of dealing with the departure and death of legendary coach Kay Yow, fell to ninth-seeded Wake Forest, 59-54, in the second game of the 32nd-annual women’s tournament and the first one contested without Yow in attendance.
“Clearly, we are disappointed that we did not win the game,” said interim head coach Stephanie Glance. “There are a flood of emotions that our team and our staff are feeling at this moment. It is the end of the season, it is the last team that Kay Yow coached and the last staff that she had. I am personally really proud of them.
“They never quit and they gave tremendous effort under very difficult circumstances. I feel like they gave their best, but our best fell short today. The game is disappointing, but we are looking at a much bigger picture right now.”
The Wolfpack clawed until the very end. Junior Nikitta Gartrell hit a 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining in the game to pull the Wolfpack within 57-54, but Wake Forest’s Alex Tchangoue hit one of two free throws with 22.3 seconds remaining and the Wolfpack could not draw any closer.
The Pack, which finishes the season with a 13-16 overall record, was led by junior Niksenior Shayla Fields, who had 15 points, while Gartrell and freshman Bonae Holston had 13 each.
For the third game in a row, the Wolfpack played without starter Sharnise Beal, the team’s second-leading scorer, who has been suffering from a knee injury.
But it was the emotional drag of losing Yow that had the biggest impact on this game in particular and the season overall, a point recognized by Wake Forest coach Mike Peterson, who told Glance following yesterday’s practices that he voted for her for ACC Coach of the Year for the way she handled the team during this difficult time.
“No one can imagine what that team has gone through this season and I think Stephanie has done an incredible job of holding the program together during the most difficult circumstances imaginable,” Peterson said. “She kept her kids together and playing well and focused on basketball. She has done a wonderful job with that group of kids.”
The Wolfpack played the entire season with a diminished roster that was further affected by injuries to several players, including Beal. Fields, the team’s lone senior, played nearly every single minute of every game this season because there were few people to give her any rest.
“If I had to choose a word to describe my teammates it would be warriors,’” Fields said. “This season has been very emotional. We have stuck together like glue. We haven’t let anything tear us apart. We have been warriors throughout the season.”
Thursday, the Wolfpack started well and played evenly with the Demon Deacons, a team State had beaten twice in the regular season. But Wake Forest, which saw the return of senior forward Corinne Groves to the lineup after missing two games with an injury, scored the last seven points of the first half to take a 29-22 lead into halftime.
“That was really the difference in the game, our lack of one of our starters and the return of one of theirs,” said interim head coach Stephanie Glance. “Neither of us had the same teams that we played with (on Feb. 17).”
The Wolfpack struggled from the field the entire game, making just 37.3 percent of its field goal attempts and two of its eight 3-point attempts.
Groves was the game’s leading scorer, with 18 points, while Demon Deacon freshman guard Secily Ray had a game-high 13 rebounds.
Now, the Wolfpack can return home and spend some time actually grieving the loss of Yow, something they were unable to do since her death on Jan. 24 and her funeral on Jan. 30, with a campus-wide memorial service in between. That was followed two weeks later by the fourth-annual Hoops4Hope Game, an event that Yow began to benefit cancer research and awareness.
Playing games has been the team’s emotional release, and not having that until next October will be difficult for those who return next season.
“Basketball has been our funnel to pour all of our emotions into,” Glance said. “We have been together every day. We are the group of people who had had the common bond of being part of her team and her staff. We go to practice every day, go on road trips, go home, eat meals together. During a very emotional time, playing games was a great support for us.
“To not have that will be very difficult.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
