No. 5 North Carolina St. holds off Kansas St.
No. 5 North Carolina State 90, Kansas State 69: North Carolina State’s goal was simple: Don’t let Ayoka Lee take over the game.
The Kansas State center entered Friday night’s game against the fifthranked Wolfpack as the nation’s second-leading scorer at 29.3 points per game.
“Obviously, we had a lot of focus on her, and we wanted to make someone else the leading scorer,” N.C. State coach Wes Moore said. “I didn’t necessarily mean let the kid hit five 3s, but hey, nice job of focusing in and helping hold Lee.”
Serena Sundell made 5 of 11 3-pointers and scored 21 points for Kansas State, but N.C. State pulled away from the Wildcats for a win.
Elissa Cunane had 18 points and six rebounds for the Wolfpack (4-1), while Diamond Johnson added 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Raina Perez and Kayla Jones each scored 12 points for the Wolfpack.
Lee finished with 19 points on 9of-18 shooting and had 11 rebounds for the Wildcats (4-1). The Wolfpack often denied her the ball and forced her into a season-high three turnovers.
“The biggest thing was making her settle for jump shots and not being so close to the basket,” Jones said.
After trailing by two points early in the second quarter, N.C. State built a 10point advantage by halftime and never trailed in the second half. The Wolfpack pushed their lead to a game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Wildcats 26-14. Johnson had seven points during that stretch.
No. 22 West Virginia 78, Kennesaw State 58: Jasmine Carson came off the bench to score 14 points with four 3pointers, both career highs, and Esmery Martinez posted her 16th career double-double as West Virginia defeated Kennesaw State.
Martinez scored 13 points with 12 rebounds and KK Deans had 12 points for the Mountaineers (2-0).
Kennesaw State (2-2) shot 73% in the first quarter to take a 23-21 lead but West Virginia outscored the Owls 21-7 in the second quarter to take control.
Madisen Smith hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter and the Mountaineers would lead thereafter. Carson scored eight straight points, including two 3-pointers, late in the quarter and Dean added a baseline 3-pointer for a 42-30 halftime lead.
Kennesaw State scored the first five points of the second half to get the deficit to single digits but a Carson 3pointer started an 21-6 run over the final six minutes of the third quarter. West Virginia led by as many as 31 in the final period.
The Mountaineers shot 46% from the arc (11 of 24). They scored 27 points off 23 turnovers, though they committed 17 of their own.
Amani Johnson scored 14 points for the Owls.