NC State
17-2,12-2ACC
Syracuse
12-7,9-7ACC
#2 NC State Guts Out 68-61 Victory at Syracuse
2/28/2021 2:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Jada Boyd's double-double (16 pts, 10 rebs) propels Pack to fourth-straight win over Orange
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The second-ranked NC State women's basketball team (17-2, 12-2 ACC) withstood a fourth-quarter Syracuse surge and wrapped up its regular season with the 68-61 victory over the Orange (12-7, 9-7 ACC) on Sunday afternoon inside the Carrier Dome.
Sophomore forward Jada Boyd delivered an incredible spark off the bench and posted her third double-double of the season with 16 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds. She scored 10 of her 16 in a big second half for the Pack.
Elissa Cunane finished one rebound shy of a double-double with her 17 points, and Raina Perez finished with 11 points. Perez also did a phenomenal job against the Orange press, dishing out six assists on the day with zero turnovers.
NC State trailed by just one point (31-30) at the midway mark of a game that featured 12 lead changes and six ties in the first 20 minutes alone. Neither team led by more than five points in the first half, with the Pack building up an advantage of three points on two occasions.
After more back and forth in the opening minutes of the third quarter, NC State opened up a double-digit lead with the help of 13 unanswered points from the 5:56 mark to the 1:49 mark. The Pack led 49-36 after that run and managed to close out the quarter holding Syracuse without a make from the field for the final 6:11, with the Orange shooting 0-of-9 and turning the ball over four times in the back half of the third period.
Syracuse outscored the Pack 16-2 to open the fourth quarter and regain a 54-53 lead with 5:33 remaining, but NC State maintained its composure despite the scoreless drought. A bucket by Boyd with 2:46 remaining in the game spurred a 7-0 Wolfpack run to put the team up 62-58, and Perez went 6-of-6 from the line in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.
Despite shooting just 1-of-9 (.111) from three-point range, the Pack managed to tack on 40 points in the paint and outscored Syracuse 17-6 on the fast break. NC State assisted on 16 of its 24 made baskets against the Orange zone, with Perez (6), Jakia Brown-Turner (5) and Elissa Cunane (3) leading the way with their numbers.
In total, there were 19 lead changes and eight ties in the game. Kiara Lewis led Syracuse in scoring with 29 points.
NC State will await the remainder of the results from around the league today to determine its final ACC Tournament seeding. The 2021 ACC Tournament is set to run March 3-7 in Greensboro, N.C.
#GoPack | @PackWomensBball
