North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack Looking For ACC Tournament Magic
3/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 2, 2011
Full tournament tickets are still available for purchase for $99. Call the NC State Ticket Office at 919-865-1510 today to place your order.
The Wolfpack Women's Pre-tournament event will be held on Thursday, March 3rd at 4:30pm in Meeting Room #2 in the Special Events Center at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex. Tickets for the cookout buffet are $24 per person. Contact Susan Scott (919-865-1440) if you wish to attend.
NC State vs. Boston College Notes
Watch Game Live on ACC Network on theacc.com (FREE)
RALEIGH, N.C. - There are lingering effects of last year's run to the ACC Tournament championship game for this year's NC State women's basketball team.
That four-day whirlwind in Greensboro, and the NCAA Tournament bid it ensured, was a phenomenal end to Kellie Harper's first season as head coach of the Wolfpack women. But that team also said good-bye to a handful of key seniors and replaced them with freshmen.
Multiple injuries and ailments have forced Harper to revamp, tweak and rearrange her lineup throughout the season, and success on the court was in short supply until recently. But a win over No. 13 North Carolina in Reynolds Coliseum kicked off a three-game winning streak that was reminiscent of last year's four-game streak just prior to the tournament.
So what Harper and her team know going into Thursday's 6 p.m. game against Boston College in the opening round of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum is that they have a tough path ahead - four games in four days against some of the toughest competition in the country.
But they've been down this road before.
If last year's run and this year's obstacle-filled season have taught Harper's team anything, it's that success can follow with mental toughness and execution.
"We know what it takes to make a run in the ACC Tournament," junior Bonae Holston said. "Our mindset going in is that we have to do all the little things, like box out, stay to our defensive principles, keep up with our assignments.
"When we do those things we're very successful."
Harper couldn't agree more.
"Last year's team took care of all the little things," she said. "Those are the things that get you wins. We've had a lot of ups and downs this year, having players gone and return. It's been hard to be consistent."
In last year's tournament, the Wolfpack had a proven leader in Nikkita Gartrell, who loaded her teammates onto her shoulders and carried them to wins over Clemson, Virginia and Boston College and into the championship game against Duke. It was just the second time in the history of the women's tournament that a team seeded sixth or lower advanced to the title game.
Gartrell earned first-team all-tournament honors by scoring 66 points and grabbing 30 rebounds in the Wolfpack's four-game run to the title game. But her leadership was even more important than her productivity.
"I think from Nikitta, one thing that I really admired about her was if she missed a shot on offense, she would be going even harder on defense to get a stop," said Wolfpack senior Amber White. "That's one thing I really admired. You can't control how you are going to shoot all the time, but we knew she was going to bring it on defense. She got rebounds, she got steals and she did all the little things we needed."
Recently, White has put in some Gartrell-like performances of her own and hopes she can help her team be as successful this year, as the 10th-seeded Wolfpack prepares for its tournament opener against the familiar Eagles. The 6 p.m. game will be televised from the Greensboro Coliseum on the ACC Network on www.theacc.com and will be broadcast live on WKCN 88.1-FM and available to premium members of GoPack All-Access.
In the Wolfpack's last three games, White has averaged 24.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 3.0 steals. She tied a school record in the Wolfpack's regular-season finale on Sunday by making 17 of her 18 free throw attempts en-route to a career-high 33 points. She was brilliant in the Wolfpack's 88-72 upset over the Tar Heels on Feb. 21, scoring 23 points in 29 minutes.
"Amber has really scored well the last few games and been very aggressive," Harper said. "She's been impossible for anyone to guard the last few games."
But this is a different team, one with a shorter bench and more inexperienced players. Harper has relied heavily on four freshmen this season and worked through her lineup changes. At one point, the team was down to just eight healthy players.
"This team, with more freshmen, we really have to think about all the little things that have to be done to be successful," White said. "Last year's team was older and more experienced. Doing the little things was second nature for us. We didn't have to think about it.
"I feel like as a whole we are doing a better job of getting all the little things done, but we have to do a better job of being consistent because one play can determine a game."
But the good thing is that there are a core group of veterans on the team - White, Holston, senior Brittany Strachan and sophomore Marissa Kastanek - who know what it takes to be successful on the ACC stage.
"It gives our returners a little bit of confidence knowing they have been there and they have been successful," Harper said. "I think they understand the type of toughness and fight they have to have. There are some similarities with last year. The one thing about our team last year was its mental toughness was incredible. That's that we have to be this year as well.
"But the mindset of our players going in is that we feel like we can do something special."
• By Tim Peeler, tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
