The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/337646
JULY 2014 ■ 127 BY BRIAN RAPP I t's a story that Wes Moore likes to tell — and he's told it many times in the past six months. "It's the day of our game with LSU [Dec. 20, 2013]," NC State's women's bas- ketball coach recalled recently. "They're coming in ranked 12th in the country. Our trainer, Casi Dailey, is taping Markeisha Gatling. She mentioned our game at LSU in 2012 [an 81-73 loss in Baton Rouge] and said: 'Keisha, you only scored two points against them last year.' Keisha answered her right back: 'Casi — I'm not the same player I was last year.'" And she proved it a few hours later, scoring 25 points (on 11-of-13 shooting) and hauling down eight rebounds in an 89-79 victory — the Pack's first win over a top-20 ranked team since upsetting fifth- ranked Duke in the 2012 ACC Tourna- ment. It was the fourth time to that point in the 2013-14 season that Gatling, a 6-5 transfer from Gulf Coast Community Col- lege, had scored 20 or more points in a game — and she would do it 10 more times — after just one 20-point game her entire junior season. By the time the season had ended, Gatling had nearly doubled her scoring average of the previous year, set a new standard for shooting accuracy in a season, and become the first NC State player in six years to earn first-team All-ACC honors, the first in three years to earn Associated Press All-America recognition and the first in 17 years to be chosen in the first round of the WNBA Draft. The Raleigh native and product of Ath- ens Drive High achieved all this while leading NC State to its best record (25-8) since a 25-10 mark in 2006-07, and its first NCAA Tournament bid in four years. That impressive list is the reason Gatling is the 2013-14 NC State Female Athlete of the Year, as chosen by The Wolfpacker. "That's amazing, especially only be- ing there two years," said Gatling during a phone interview from Chicago, where she's a backup post player for the WNBA's Chicago Sky. "It's a big honor and shows that all my hard work is paying off." "It's well deserved," Moore added. "Ob- viously, she meant everything to our suc- cess. As a program, we showed big improve- ment from last year [a disappointing 15-15 season, culminating with the dismissal of four-year head coach Kellie Harper], and I think a lot of that is attributable to Keisha, the way she transformed her game and re- ally was able to lift the whole team." Both coach and player point to Moore's decision to make Gatling the focal point of the Pack's offense as the key to her domi- nating senior season. "We knew going in, and we told her and everyone else, that as a team, we'd go as she goes," Moore said. "We knew she had the ability. It was a just a matter of her hav- ing the right mindset." High expectations have been the norm for the middle child of Marvin and Cheryl Gatling ever since a record-setting prep career that included 1,273 points (second- most ever at Athens Drive) and a 74.1-per- cent field goal shooting average that's still the North Carolina state record for accu- racy in a season. A Pack fan from childhood, Gatling had intended to go to NC State, but changed her mind when legendary coach Kay Yow suc- cumbed to cancer in 2009. She opted for UNC Charlotte, but had to enroll at Florida Gulf Coast to bring her grades up. Her two years in Florida produced a No. 7 junior college player ranking from All-Star Girls Report, averages of 11.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, and another change of mind about her eventual school destination. "I knew after I went to Florida I wasn't going to go back to Charlotte," she said. "It came down to VCU or NC State because I didn't want to go far from home." Gatling had played against future team- mates Lakeesa Daniel, Breezy Williams ■ Female Athlete Of The Year A Turnaround FOR THE Record Books In Her Final Season, Markeisha Gatling Became A Dominant Post Player Gatling earned first-team All-ACC honors after leading the Wolfpack in scoring (17.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.2 boards per contest) this past season. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN "We knew she had the ability. It was a just a matter of her having the right mindset." ■ Head coach Wes Moore on Gatling's performance in her senior season 126-128.Female Athlete of the Year.indd 127 6/27/14 8:28 AM