N.C. State's Marissa Kastanek dribbles up court as Duke's Karima Christmas defends during the ACC Tournament championship game. (Photo by Rob Rowe)
BACKYARD BISTRO/RALEIGH Kellie Harper couldn’t remember exactly when she had been in such a situation before.
Back when the N.C. State women’s basketball coach was a point guard at Tennessee the Lady Vols - who won three NCAA titles during her career - were pretty much in the NCAA Tournament before the season started. Then during her five seasons as head coach at Western Carolina and three seasons as an assistant at Chattanooga before that, Southern Conference teams knew they had to win the conference tournament or they might earn a bid to the WNIT.
But the Wolfpack (20-13) has been on the NCAA “bubble” ever since losing the ACC championship game to Duke eight days ago, although most of the bracketologists had N.C. State in the field.
Harper and her team gathered with about 300 fans on Monday night to watch the Selection Special on ESPN that announced the 64 competing teams.
Duke celebrates its first ACC women's basketball title since 2004. (Photo by Rob Rowe)
GREENSBORO COLISEUM It’s finals day at the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, and for the ninth time in its 11 seasons in Greensboro there are two North Carolina teams in the championship game.
One of two very different stories is going to be written today.
The most likely one is “Third Time’s the Charm!” That means Duke, which is ranked No. 9 nationally and the tournament’s top seed, beats N.C. State and wins for the first time in Joanne P. McCallie’s three straight trips to the final.
The other is “The Glass Slipper fits!” That means first-year Wolfpack coach Kellie Harper takes her outsized, scrappy sixth-seeded team shakes off its 70-39 loss on Feb. 11 at Cameron Indoor Stadium and pulls off a big upset.
Duke gets McCallie her sixth conference tournament title, including one in the Big Ten at Michigan State and four others at Maine, with a 70-60 victory in front of 9,432 fans.
GREENSBORO COLISEUM Somebody wants to write a Cinderella story out of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament this season, and the candidate is going to come out of this second semifinal game.
Waiting in tomorrow’s 1 p.m. title contest will be No. 8 Duke, which has played in the last two conference finals and knows exactly what the finals are all about.
Those candidates for the glass slipper are No. 6 seed N.C. State, a team common wisdom says is headed for the NCAA Tournament no matter what happens today, and No. 7 seed Boston College, which just needs to keep winning unless it plans to head to one of the two post-season consolation tournaments.
BC is coming off a very big upset over No. 2 seed Florida State, while the Wolfpack is coming off an impressive although probably less shocking conquest of No. 3 seed Virginia.
It’s the 33rd edition of the tournament, and never have No. 6 and No. 7 seeds squared off in the semifinals.
The regular season results don’t offer much predictive help, as the Eagles rolled 83-66 on Jan. 10 in Chestnut Hill and the Wolfpack got revenge 74-63 on Feb. 21 at Reynolds Coliseum.
And as is obvious, it’s a matchup between Eagle size and Wolfpack speed with State holding on to win 63-57. Continue reading »
GREENSBORO COLISEUM It’s the final game of the second four-game day at the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, and this promises to be a good one.
No. 24 Virginia (21-8) is definitely headed for the NCAA Tournament in a couple of weeks, while N.C. State (18-12) seems to be in the “probable” category.
Unfortunately with the way the schedule goes in the 12-team conference they ran into each other only once this season, and the result was a 73-60 Cavalier win in Charlottesville on Jan. 27.
And there will be at least one really interesting personnel matchup. Virginia boasts senior Monica Wright, who was the ACC player of the year, and the Wolfpack has high-energy Marissa Kastanek (pictured), the conference’s rookie of the year.
Kastanek’s team comes out the winner in a loud battle, as the Wolfpack survives 66-59. Continue reading »
Duke junior guard Jasmine Thomas has received the annual Kay Yow Award as the Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Thomas is currently averaging 15.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.8 steals. She was earlier named a third-team Academic All-American by ESPN The Magazine.
Thomas is one of four Blue Devils on the squad, which includes grad student Keturah Jackson, senior Bridgette Mitchell and freshman Allison Vernerey.
N.C. State placed two players in senior Brittany Strachan and freshman Marissa Kastanek.
Others named are Boston College senior Ayla Brown and grad student Brittanny Johnson; Maryland freshmen Tianna Hawkins and Diandra Tchatchouang; Virginia Tech senior Lindsay Biggs and freshman Alyssa Fenyn; Florida State junior Christian Hunnicutt; Georgia Tech junior Deja Foster; and Miami freshman Morgan Stroman.
GREENSBORO COLISEUM During football season they call this matchup the “Textile Bowl” between the two largest land-grant institutions in the Carolinas.
N.C. State will be looking for revenge against Clemson in the nightcap of the first round of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament. It was at Littlejohn Coliseum on Jan. 31 where the Wolfpack played its worst game of the season in a 69-56 loss.
Kellie Harper’s 17-12 club may need to win this one to start nailing down an invite to the NCAA Tournament.
Clemson, coached by NCSU alumna Cristy McKinney, is 13-17 and is the only team in the ACC with a losing record.
It’s a 40-minute grind, but the Wolfpack will advance with a 59-54 victory.
State never trails in the first half, leading 14-5 on a jumper from Bonae Holston (pictured) at 13:36 and holding a working margin most of the way before leading 24-19 at the break.
But the Tigers don’t go belly-up. Clemson takes its biggest lead of the game on a Lele Hardy layup that makes it 44-40 with 7:56 to go before the Wolfpack makes its late push. Continue reading »
N.C. State guard Marissa Kastanek has been named ACC women’s basketball freshman of the year, leading the five-player ACC all-rookie team chosen by the Blue Ribbon Panel that also includes the league’s coaches.
Duke center Allison Vernerey, who did most of her work coming off the bench, was also selected to the team along with Wake Forest’s Sandra Garcia, Maryland’s Diandra Tchatchouang and Florida State’s Chasity Clayton.
Kastanek started 28 of 29 games for the Wolfpack - all except the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech on Senior Day - and averaged 10.7 points per game. She also hit 35.3 percent of her 3-point attempts.
Vernerey averages 7.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.
N.C. State didn’t put anyone in double figures, but the Wolfpack upset No. 22 Georgia Tech 54-46 to win its Senior Day women’s basketball game at Reynolds Coliseum.
It was the first win of the season against a ranked team for the Wolfpack (17-13, 7-7 ACC), which earned the No. 6 seed for the ACC Tournament and will take on Clemson in the first round on Thursday night at 8.
Brittany Strachan hit a clinching 3-pointer for the Wolfpack.
Sharnise Beal and Inga Muciniece joined fellow seniors Lucy Ellison and Nikitta Gartrell in the starting lineup for the first time this season for State, which got nine points from Marissa Kastanek (pictured) and eight from Bonae Holston.
Brigitte Ardossi had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Tech (22-8, 8-6), while Alex Montgomery added 11.
It’s been a disappointing season for Sylvia Hatchell and the UNC women’s basketball team. Perennially among the nation’s elite, they’ve dropped out of the top 25 and currently suffer the indignity of a losing conference record.
Things didn’t get better on Sunday; they lost by a 73-64 margin to cross-town rival N.C. State and its first-year coach, Kellie Harper. N.C. State now sports a .500 conference record (6-6) to go with its overall record of 16-11. With this loss, the Tar Heels drop to 5-7 in the ACC, and 17-9 overall.
Fortunately for all concerned, there was a more important cause: The game was a part of the WBCA “Pink Zone” games to raise awareness about the Kay Yow/WBCA cancer fund, a nonprofit created to raise money to support the search for a cure to breast cancer. Each team warmed up in pink tees with the fund’s logo and UNC played in special pink uniforms. Fans were even encouraged to attend the game wearing pink.
For N.C. State, Bonae Holston and Marissa Kastanek led the effort, with 20 and 17 points, respectively. Kastanek, a freshman guard, carries the distinction of being the last recruit of the late Yow, who died last Jan. 24 of breast cancer. Cetera DeGraffenreid and Italee Lucas were the dominant performers for UNC, scoring 22 and 15 points, respectively. The box score is here.
Triangle Offense photographer Arianna Hoffmann attended the game and took these images.
N.C. State guard Marissa Kastanek has been named ACC rookie of the week for the third time this season.
Florida State’s Jacinta Monroe was named player of the week for games ending Sunday.
Kastanek led the Wolfpack to a pair of victories in a 43-hour span, including an upset at archrival UNC, by averaging 17.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. In the wins over UNC and Boston College she shot 69.2 percent (9-for-13) from 3-point range.
The wins moved the Wolfpack from ninth place to a tie for fifth in the ACC standings.
Kyle on "UNC holds off pesky NCCU with big second half, awaits selection committee": Mike Potter does Triangle sports fans a wonderful service by providing a unique perspective of events that may not otherwise receive media coverage. Thanks Mike for all you have done and continue to do in your outstanding career as a journalist and an ambassador for the Triangle.
caniacgirl on "Peters and pipes pickpocket a peck of prickly Penguins": I absolutely love the headline! Games like this one definitely reignite the little bit of playoff hope I have left in me. It should be an interesting few weeks that's for sure.
Greg Nccu Student on "Miller leads NCCU to 11th victory": There are a lot of Rumors on Campus about Joanna Miller leaving NCCU next year. Please Coach Robinson, We need to keep this player from gong to another College.
