NC State Elissa Cunane Spectacular Magazine ACC Tournament
Sports

NC State Bullies FSU, Advances to Semifinals

Lawrence Davis III @LawDavis13 @SpecMagSports

GREENSBORO, N.C. – No. 3 NC State women’s basketball (27-3) will play in the ACC Tournament semifinal for the fifth season in a row after defeating Florida State (17-13) by an 84-54 score in a Friday afternoon quarterfinal matchup.

The Wolfpack will move on to take on fifth-seeded Virginia Tech in the semifinal round. That game is set for a 12 p.m. start on Saturday inside the Greensboro Coliseum.

Elissa Cunane and Jakia Brown-Turner tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 points each, and Jada Boyd joined them in double figures with 12. Brown-Turner’s scoring performance marked the most points she has scored in seven career ACC Tournament games, and she also tied her season-high in assists with six and zero turnovers to round out her stat line.

NC State set the tone early, hitting five shots in a row to take a 10-5 lead and force a Florida State timeout less than five minutes into the game. The Wolfpack scored 11 points off of seven Seminole turnovers in the first period alone.

The Wolfpack then scored nine unanswered in a four-minute span in the second quarter and scored 10 of the last 12 points of the half to lead by 13 (36-23) at the break. NC State outscored Florida State 24-14 in the third quarter to push its lead to over 20 points, and the Wolfpack was able to show off the depth of its bench with key minutes from its reserves in the fourth quarter.

NC State shot above 50 percent for the 12th time in 2021-22 as it ended the game with a .524 clip (33-of-63). After heavily capitalizing on Florida State’s mishandles in the first quarter, the Wolfpack outscored the Seminoles 21-3 in points off of turnovers and 42-26 in the paint. It marked the Pack’s sixth game in a row with 35+ points inside.

Aziaha James knocked down the first ACC Tournament buckets of her career, scoring six points in her first minute and a half of action on the way to tallying nine total. Diamond Johnson added seven points in her ACC Tournament debut, and Genesis Bryant added two points in her first conference tournament game.

NC State will make the turnaround to prepare for Virginia Tech on Saturday at noon. The semifinal game is set to be televised nationally on the ACC Network.