Final from the Greensboro Coliseum, home of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament:
Women’s Semifinals…
N.C. State 70, Virginia Tech 55
N.C. State the Reigning ACC Champions, and now on to Sunday’s final game at the Greensboro Coliseum…
Elissa Cunane, from Northern Guilford High School, led the Wolfpack to this semifinal victory, as the “Big Smile” Cunane finished with a team-leading 20 points and 13 rebounds, for the Pack…After starting the first half, going 3-11 from the field, Elissa finished the game 8-16 overall from the floor, and she was 2-3 from three-point range, 2-2 from the free throw line, and she blocked two VA Tech shots…All of this turned in, in 34 minutes of work by the “Big Smile” today….
N.C State had a mere four-point lead at halftime in this contest, with the Pack up 31-27 at the break, but the second half became a much different story for the Wolfpack….
N.C. State finished the third quarter on a 7-0 run, and then the Pack came out to begin the fourth quarter on a big 6-0 start to the final frame, giving State that BIG overall 13-0 surge…
Center Elizabeth Kitley, from Northwest Guilford High School, the ACC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year, and guard Cayla King also from Northwest Guilford High School, were both missing from the Virginia Tech Hokies lineup today…Liz Kitley out with a sore shoulder, and King out due to an injured ankle…
N.C. State women now (28-3) and awaiting the winner of the Notre Dame-Miami game, and the Pack will face either the Irish, or the Hurricanes, in the ACC Women’s Tournament Title Game, on Sunday, at the Greensboro Coliseum..Game time is set for 12 Noon, on Sunday….
**********When we talked to Elissa Cunane for the first time ever, and that was now around 8-9 years ago, during an interview at the old Shane’s Rib Shack in Greensboro, N.C., and the Shane’s was located on Westover Terrace, in the Gate City….Now the Shane’s is gone, and Westover Terrace is history, now re-named as Josephine Boyd Blvd., but something about Elissa Cunane remains the same…
I asked the “Big Smile” on that Thursday night to describe her game, and her overall basketball experience, and she told me the one word that described the basketball experience was Exhilarating….And by studying what she told me, and finding this definition from the Oxford Language Dictionary, Exhilarating means, making one feel very happy, animated, or elated; thrilling…..
That word Exhilarating does describe the game of Elissa Cunane very well…She is happy and always animated, with her “Big Smile”, and she is making those who are around her, and those who follow her game very elated, and what she has been doing for N.C. State has been thrilling for all of those involved, including the players and the coaches….
Exhilarating, and that was the word coming from the 14 or 15 year-old Elissa Cunane back in the day, and it still fits her fine, even today….**********