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Raina Perez ran around the perimeter of the arc and paused along the left wing. She dribbled the ball in place as she was defended by Syracuse’s Christianna Carr, a player nine inches taller than Perez. But NC State’s 5-foot-4 guard found a way to get around Christianna and helped generate the Wolfpack’s near flawless game in the paint.

Perez faked two quick passes to her right and left, forcing Christianna to shift over and open up the passing lane inside. That passing lane allowed Perez to find Elissa Cunane, NC State’s biggest threat, in the paint. The Wolfpack’s 6-foot-5 center collected the ball, backed Alaysia Styles toward the basket and knocked down an easy layup. It marked the third straight layup of a 9-0 Wolfpack run late in the second quarter, putting them up 21 points.

That was just one of the 27 layups NC State put past Syracuse. The Wolfpack, who entered the game as the 32nd best team in the country in terms of inside scoring, used its size advantage over the Orange to generate a statement win that cemented its Atlantic Coast Conference regular season title.

No. 4 NC State (25-3, 16-1 ACC) scored 62 points in the paint to hand Syracuse (11-15, 4-12 ACC) a 95-53 loss, its second-largest defeat of the season on Sunday. The Wolfpack, led by Kayla Jones’ 18 points — 16 inside — and its 4-out 1-in offense outmatched the Orange’s zone defense, handing them their third straight loss.

In Syracuse’s last game against No. 23 Virginia Tech, its defense was similarly challenged against a taller Hokies side that was led by 6-foot-6 center Elizabeth Kitley, the ACC’s tallest player. After that 49-point loss to the Hokies, acting head coach Vonn Read acknowledged the challenges of playing the zone against a bigger team inside, with the Orange’s biggest problem being their inability to get “matched up.”

But Read opted to maintain Syracuse’s 2-3 zone against an almost identically sized NC State side, and finding those matchups inside was just as big of a challenge. Typically, Syracuse’s 2-3 zone relies on forcing its opponents outside the arc to shoot from deep. But in the Wolfpack’s offensive outlook, that was going to be near impossible, especially with a zone.

Perez’s sneaky look to Cunane was NC State’s third consecutive layup during its unanswered point-streak. But the Wolfpack’s layups were primarily driven by its ability to generate offense off the fast break, where it scored 24 points.

Midway through the first quarter, Cunane secured a one-handed defensive rebound and sent Jakia Brown-Turner in transition. Brown-Turner found Jones for a layup. Then, in the second quarter, Jones helped generate the Wolfpack’s late second quarter run. Jones read a backwards pass from Najé Murray and intercepted it, finding Perez all alone on Syracuse’s end to put NC State up 16 points.

But Syracuse’s defense ultimately executed in stopping NC State from deep, despite two players recording double figures inside. The Wolfpack, who entered the game as the fifth-best 3-point shooting team, scored only five 3s and shot 4% worse than the Orange did at 21.7%.

“They scored a lot of points in the paint and everything, but we didn’t want to give them both,” Read said. “We were making sure that we were staying home with their shooters and trying to double up a little bit inside.”

Still as Syracuse lacked bench depth, its aggressiveness inside was limited without the personnel to accommodate for foul trouble. That allowed Cunane to have an easier time scoring layups, making her an easier target as NC State’s lone player inside, even as she was double-teamed nearly the whole game.

On one play late in the first quarter, NC State’s Jada Boyd blocked a 3-point attempt from Murray and sent Brown-Turner down the left wing in transition. Brown-Turner easily cruised into the paint, past Teisha Hyman and scored a wide open layup as Alaina Rice was very late to record the block. Then, early in the third quarter, Brown-Turner easily beat Hyman inside before hitting an easy jumper from close range, easily lobbing the ball over Christianna, who struggled to get an arm in the way in time.

Christianna and Styles, the two players responsible for double-teaming Cunane, still got into foul trouble, recording three personal fouls each, and many times it led to extended scoring looks for the Wolfpack. Styles’ first two fouls, both on Cunane, cost the Orange six points as she fouled Cunane on two successful layups, leading to two and-1 scoring plays, and she put away each free-throw attempt.

Syracuse still managed to match NC State’s steal total with six, but even as it forced turnovers of its own, the end result sometimes backfired into a Wolfpack field goal in the paint. Early in the second quarter, Perez was once again showcasing her fakes as she appeared to be shooting a 3.

But as Perez raised her arms, Hyman stole the ball and ran down the court. Still, Perez recovered, sprinting down the court and stealing it back from Hyman, before finding Camille Hobby inside for a layup, putting NC State up 27.

Published on February 20, 2022 at 5:48 pm

Contact Alex: ahcirino@syr.edu