The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/976701
64 ■ THE WOLFPACKER WOMEN'S BASKETBALL free throws (126), and second all time in attempted free throws (180). For her career Nelson is 27th in total points scored (1,173), ninth in games played (128), 11th in made free throws in a career (308), and 11th in rebounds (794). In April, she signed a training camp con- tract with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury. Best Win It had been 11 years since an NC State team had advanced past the second round of the NCAA Tournament, during a 2006- 07 season more well known for the dra- matic comeback from another cancer set- back by head coach Kay Yow, two years before the disease finally claimed her. That was also the last time NC State hosted a round in the tournament. However, before a raucous crowd in Reynolds Coliseum, the 22nd-ranked and No. 4-seeded Pack defeated 16th-ranked and No. 5-seeded Maryland 74-60 March 18 to advance to the Kansas City Regional and its first Sweet 16 in more than a decade. Redshirt junior Kiara Leslie — who transferred to NC State from Maryland — led five Pack players in double figures with 21 points and added a team-leading 11 rebounds. It was the Terrapins first game in Reynolds since leaving the ACC for the Big Ten in 2015 — and their second straight loss to a Moore-coached team in that span. The win hiked NC State's all-time NCAA Tournament record in games played in Raleigh to 15-2. Best Individual Offensive Performance It would be hard to rank anything over Nelson's career-high, 30-point performance at Pitt Feb. 22, the most individual points scored by a Pack player this season. In just the third game of the season, though, Leslie set a new standard by becoming only the fifth player in NC State program history to have a "perfect game." Leslie came off the bench in a reserve role and made all eight of her field goal attempts (including four from three-point range) and both of her free throw attempts for a game- high 22 points. That total eclipsed the previ- ous perfect game high of 21 points set by Sasha Reaves (8 of 8 on field goals, 3 of 3 on three-pointers and 5 of 5 on free throws) in 2007. Erin Young (1995), Ashley Key (2004) and Markeisha Gatling (2014) are the only other Pack players to have perfect games. Best Individual Defensive Performance (Tie) Maryland senior guard Kristen Confroy entered the Terrapins' NCAA second-round game against NC State March 18 as the top long-range shooter in the Big Ten Confer- ence, hitting 45.0 percent of her three-point attempts. In Maryland's 77-57 first-round rout of Princeton, Confroy made 3 of 5 threes en route to 14 points. The Terps also featured All-Big Ten wing Kaila Charles, who had 20 points against the Tigers. Moore and the Pack coaching staff gave sophomore guard Aislinn Konig the defen- sive responsibility against Confroy while Charles would be assigned to the Pack's top stopper, Leslie. Konig responded by allow- ing Confroy a grand total of just two shots — none from three-point range, in 35 min- utes of playing time, for zero points. Charles managed four points (on 2-of-8 shooting) against Leslie in a game in which Maryland was held to its lowest point total (60) of the season. Biggest Heartbreak If not for one loss in the ACC this season, NC State would have finished third in the conference with a 12-4 record, tied with Florida State — a tie that would have been broken by the Pack's 65-56 win at home Feb. 1 over the then-No. 10 Seminoles. But, one week later, another Florida team that's been a consistent thorn in the Pack's side — Miami — handed NC State a 52-48 loss. It was the Hurricanes' third straight win over NC State in the last three years, and Miami's seventh straight win over the Pack in Coral Gables since 2007. It was also the NC State's only ACC loss in a 12-game span from Jan. 8 through Feb. 25, when it suffered an 86-67 loss at eventual national champion Notre Dame to close out the regu- lar season. Rookie of the Year Though hardly a "rookie" considering two previous years at Maryland, Leslie was a first-year player this season with NC State — and as such is, technically, a Pack rookie. After graduating early from Maryland, the sister of former Pack men's standout C.J. Senior post Akela Maize finished her NC State career on a high note, contributing 10.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest while also blocking 68 shots. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN