NC State
Wake Forest
NC State Hosts In-State Foe Wake Forest Thursday Evening
12/16/2020 10:16:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RALEIGH – The fourth-ranked NC State women's basketball team (6-0, 1-0 ACC) returns to Kay Yow Court on Thursday evening to host in-state foe Wake Forest (4-1, 1-0 ACC). Tip-off from Reynolds Coliseum is set for 7 p.m., with live television coverage provided by RSN (Fox Sports South in Raleigh).
Due to health and safety recommendations and current state guidelines, home NC State women's basketball games are closed to the public.
A WIN ON THURSDAY WOULD...
• Be the 951st win in program history (950-471)
• Be head coach Wes Moore's 733rd career win (732-231)
• Be Moore's 175th win at NC State (174-62)
• Be Moore's 79th ACC win at NC state (78-37)
• Be the Pack's third-straight 7-0 start to a season
• Be NC State's sixth in a row over the Demon Deacons
• Be the Wolfpack's seventh straight over a conference opponent dating back to defeating Syracuse for Senior Night on Feb. 27, 2020
NOTING THE WOLFPACK (6-0, 1-0 ACC)
• Maintained its spot at No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25, marking its first time since the 1999-2000 campaign spending consecutive weeks in the top five of the poll
• Selected to finish second in the ACC this season behind Louisville
• Three players on the team with 30+ shot attempts from the field who have compiled shooting marks of better than 45 percent - Kayla Jones (.571), Elissa Cunane (.517) and Raina Perez (.488)
• Held three opponents to under 28 percent from the floor and five of six opponents to under 40 percent from the floor
• Cunane is coming off back-to-back double-doubles against Elon (22 points, 13 rebounds) and Boston College (23 points, 15 rebounds). It marked the first time she has accomplished that feat since stringing together a pair on Jan. 12 and Jan. 16 of last season
• Jones and Cunane both put together 20-point games against Boston College, the first time since Nov. 30, 2019 that a pair of Wolfpack players have accomplished that feat in the same game
• Perez still leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (6.5) with just four turnovers on the season
• Ranked in the top 25 nationally in: defensive rebounds per game (10th - 33.8), scoring margin (14th - +26.8), fewest personal fouls per game (15th - 13.5), field-goal percentage defense (17th - .324), rebounds per game (17th - 48.30 and assist-to-turnover ratio (18th - 1.38)
SCOUTING THE DEMON DEACONS (4-1, 1-0 ACC)
• Picked to finish 12th in the ACC this season
• Defeated No. 24 Missouri State during non-conference play for its first win over a ranked opponent since February 2017
• Two players ranked in the top 10 in the ACC in scoring - Preseason All-ACC honoree Ivana Raca (19.0) and Gina Conti (17.4)
• Raca also averages 8.2 rebounds, which is fourth in the league and 20th nationally
• Rank just behind the Pack at third in the ACC for fewest turnovers per game with an average of 13.8
• Riding a four-game winning streak coming into Thursday's game after most recently defeating North Carolina, 57-54, in its ACC opener
SERIES HISTORY (NC State leads 73-14)
• Thursday marks the 88th meeting between NC State and Wake Forest. The teams have met at least once every season since their first matchup on Jan. 16, 1975.
• The Wolfpack has won five meetings in a row against the Demon Deacons.
• NC State owns a 39-5 advantage in games played in Raleigh. Wake Forest's last win in the series came on Kay Yow Court on Feb. 19, 2017.
• The squads met once during the 2019-20 regular season. NC State came away with the 59-45 home win.
COMEBACK PACK
NC State is coming off of one of the most dramatic comeback victories in the program's 47-year history. The Pack overcame a 16-point deficit that it faced with 6:15 remaining in the game to defeat Boston College, 75-69. The team scored 26 of the final 30 points of the outing and held the Eagles to just two makes from the floor in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback.
The victory marked the largest fourth-quarter comeback for the Pack since NCAA women's basketball switched from halves to quarters at the start of the 2015-16 campaign. It was also the second-largest second-half comeback in the Coach Moore era, as NC State previously overcame a 20-point second-half deficit to Miami in February 2015.
STRENGTH IN THE PACK
Since the renovation of Reynolds Coliseum was completed in August 2016, NC State has put together a 64-9 mark when playing on Kay Yow Court. That record includes 40 consecutive victories over non-conference opponents and 24 out of 33 possible league wins. The Pack's non-conference streak dates back to the old Reynolds Coliseum days and excludes the 2015-16 season that was played at Broughton High School during renovations. NC State's last non-conference defeat on Kay Yow Court coming at the hands of Minnesota on Dec. 3, 2014.
CLUTCH KJ
Jones is making the most of her senior season. After tallying just five points in the Pack's season opener, Jones has scored 12+ in each of the five games since. In that stretch, she is shooting 30-of-53 (.566) for 16.3 points per game, and she has stuffed the stat sheet with three games with 7+ rebounds and four games with 3+ assists.
Jones was a huge catalyst in the Pack's comeback at Boston College. The Jamesville, N.C., native went on a 9-0 one-woman run that spanned 1:40 of the fourth quarter. She led the Pack in scoring with a career-high 25 points, nine more than her previous career high of 17 points tallied against Georgia Tech last regular season.
Her outing marked the first 25+ point performance for a member of the Pack since Cunane posted 27 points at Duke on Feb. 2, 2020.
DISHING IT OUT
Three Wolfpack starters average three or more assists per game this season - Perez (26, 4.3 average), Jakia Brown-Turner (22, 3.7 average), and Kai Crutchfield (12, 3.0 average). The Wolfpack is one of three ACC programs (Duke, UNC, Virginia Tech) that has three players averaging 3+ assists and one of two ACC programs (Duke) that has multiple players averaging 3.5+ assists.
As a team, NC State has dished out 20 or more assists in three of six games, which includes a season-high 28 assists in the Pack's win over Coastal Carolina. That number marks the most in a single game for NC State in the Coach Moore era (previous high was 27 against Elon in 2013, Moore's first season with the Wolfpack). It is also the most for the Pack in a single game since at least the 2000-01 campaign.
SCHEDULE UPDATE
As announced by the Atlantic Coast Conference office on Wednesday afternoon, the Wolfpack's home game against Duke, originally scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 20, has been postponed. The postponement follows positive tests, subsequent quarantining and contract tracing within the Duke women's basketball program. The program is adhering to the outlined protocols within the ACC Medical Advisory Group report.
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