With nearly 25 seconds left on the clock, North Carolina State guard Len’Nique Brown knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game at 55, and send the Monday night game against Boston College into overtime. Five game minutes later, in overtime, she hurled the ball hopelessly from her end, trying to salvage any measure of the score line that the Wolfpack once had. Brown had 18 points in her team’s 64-59 loss to the BC women’s basketball team at Conte Forum.
The game got off to a late start, seeing as the men’s basketball game, scheduled directly before, went into double overtime. While the start may have been late, it surely was not slow. The gameplay began as a 3-point shooting competition would. BC struck first in the contest, as Emilee Daley knocked down a 3-pointer with the first shot of the game. Brown then added three points to the scoreboard for NC State in return. Daley knocked down another, then forward Jennifer Mathurin for the Wolfpack, then Ashley Kelsick for the Eagles and finally Dominique Wilson hit the final 3-pointer of this opening duel. Wilson capped the game at nine apiece, minutes after the whistle blew to start.
It was at this point that BC began to pull away from the Wolfpack, establishing a control over the game that would not be broken until much later. Marti Mosetti slipped Daley for two points down low, then center Katie Quandt bagged another two points for the Eagles near the basket. BC went on a scoring run, switching the point of attack from the 3-point line to the paint. NC State could not seem to match the Eagles on the offensive end, allowing the Eagles 10 uncontested points. In this manner, BC racked up a sizeable lead. Daley shone in this half, doubling the point total of the second highest scoring player on the court, Kelsick. Daley had 12, while Kelsick had six. They helped the Eagles go into the locker room with a lead of 11 points at 31-20.
Little appeared to change as both teams took to the court once more, but NC State slowly crawled its way up the scoreboard.
“We had some defensive errors, coupled with some turnovers on the other end, and that’s the recipe to let them come back,” head coach Erik Johnson said. “But you have to give NC State credit—they hit huge shots, they were well coached, they put us in tough positions.”
The Eagles had 13 turnovers in the second half, one of the major factors of NC State’s ability to close the 11-point deficit it had going. Brown, Mathurin, and guard Miah Spencer were all instrumental, ending regulation in double-digits for the Wolfpack.
Despite some poor play late in the game, Johnson credited his team with its ability to finish it out. He said that his players did not focus on the lead they lost, but instead worked to win.
Coming off a 32-point game against Wake Forest, ACC Player of the Week Kelly Hughes had a quiet first half, but was indispensable for the Eagles towards the end.
“The good thing for me and our shooters is that both Wake (Forest) and NC State have been going under screen, so us shooters have been having a field day,” Hughes said. “I haven’t seen that kind of space in weeks, since ACC play started.”
Featured Image by Arthur Bailin / Heights Editor
