#9 NC State Breezes by Notre Dame in 34-Point Road Victory
**********N.C. State Women led by Elissa Cunane’s(Northern Guilford High School) ninth double-double of the season. The sophomore center scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds.**********
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 9 NC State women’s basketball team (15-1, 4-1 ACC) dominated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (6-11, 1-4 ACC) as it earned a 90-56 road victory Sunday afternoon inside the Purcell Pavilion.
The victory was the Wolfpack’s second-ever win over the Fighting Irish in nine meetings and its first in three tries when playing in South Bend. Additionally, the 34-point decision was the largest margin of defeat for Notre Dame in conference play since it joined the ACC for the 2013-14 campaign.
As a team, NC State shot a season-best 56.7 percent (34-of-60) from the field and held Notre Dame to under 30 percent shooting in two of the game’s four quarters. The Wolfpack owned a 44-31 advantage in rebounds and outscored the Fighting Irish 38-22 in the paint.
Four members of the Pack scored 10 or more points, led by Elissa Cunane’s ninth double-double of the season. The sophomore center scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds. Jada Boyd followed with 16 points and a 7-of-11 clip from the field, and Kayla Jones (15 points, 6-of-7 shooting) and Kai Crutchfield (13 points, 5-of-6 shooting) joined them in double figures.
After owning a 14-point lead at halftime, NC State came out of the break and scored the first seven points of the second half. Notre Dame missed its first five attempts from the floor in the third quarter to put the Wolfpack’s lead over 20 points, where it would stay for the remainder of the game. The team’s 30 third-quarter points were the most tallied in a single period by the team this season. NC State led by as many as 35 on five occasions in the second half as it cruised its way to the victory.
Katlyn Gilbert (25 points) and Destinee Walker (11 points) were Notre Dame’s leading scorers.
The Wolfpack missed its first basket of the game but went on to hit five shots in a row to build up an early lead. NC State shot 8-of-14 (.571) from the field in the first quarter and only improved from there as it ended the first half 16-of-26 (.615). The team held Notre Dame to just 1-of-8 from the floor over the final 7:31 of the second quarter and took its biggest lead of the first half (39-25) into the break.
NC State returns home for a Thursday night matchup with the 11th-ranked Florida State Seminoles. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. from Reynolds Coliseum, and the game will be televised nationally on the ACC Network.