NC State
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North Florida
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#8 NC State Tops North Florida to Open Season
11/25/2020 4:39:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Wolfpack claims 37th straight home win over a non-conference foe
RALEIGH – The reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion and eighth-ranked women's basketball team (1-0) picked up right where it left off and opened the 2020-21 season with a 93-65 win against North Florida on Wednesday afternoon inside Reynolds Coliseum.
The Wolfpack took its 18th-straight season-opening victory thanks to a balanced attack that included four players in double figures. All 12 players who saw time on the floor found the scoring column.
Guard Kai Crutchfield impressed in her senior debut with a team-high 21 points that was just two shy of her personal best scoring performance. She shot lights out from the field with an 8-of-10 mark that included four threes.
Jada Boyd (15 points, 10 rebounds) posted her second career double-double, and Jakia Brown-Turner (13) and Elissa Cunane (12) added to the scoring threat.
Needing just the 12 points coming into the outing, Cunane reached the 1,000-point milestone in the first half. It made her the ninth active ACC player, the only active junior in the conference and the 35th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points.
Brown-Turner and Crutchfield made back-to-back buckets starting at the 6:45 mark of the first quarter. Those shots started a 10-0 Wolfpack run to give NC State a 14-5 lead. The Pack would not trail the remainder of the game, with its largest lead reaching 29 points (93-64) late in the game.
NC State took a 45-27 lead into the locker room after shooting over 50 percent from the floor (17-of-32, .531) and behind the arc (7-of-13, .538) in the first half. The red hot offense continued in the second half. The Wolfpack opened the third quarter with 10 unanswered points and held North Florida without a field goal for over three minutes to open the half.
Genesis Bryant, Elle Sutphin, Rebecca Demeke and Dontavia Waggoner all made their collegiate debuts, checking in for NC State in the second half. Waggoner led the newcomers with a solid seven points on 3-of-4 shooting.
Boyd and Brown-Turner showed no signs of slowing down after stellar freshman campaigns. Boyd made her first career start on her way to posting the double-double, and Brown-Turner tied her career high with six assists.
Wednesday marked the Wolfpack's 37th-straight home victory against a non-conference opponent. It is also the sixth-straight overall win for NC State, dating back to the 2019-20 season when the team ended the year on a five-game win streak that ended with its ACC Tournament title.
The Wolfpack will be back inside Reynolds Coliseum on Sunday, Nov. 29 to take on Radford. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., and the game will be aired live on ACCNX. Attendance is not open to the general public.
#GoPack | @PackWomensBball
