RALEIGH – The last time the UConn women’s basketball team lost to NC State was 1998. It was an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game; the win sent late coach Kay Yow to her first and only Final Four.
Sunday, in front of a loud sold-out crowd of 5,500 at Reynolds Coliseum, the Wolfpack did it again. NC State didn’t care that Paige Bueckers was back or UConn had depth or top freshmen or that UConn was the No. 2 team in the country on the verge of being voted No. 1 after LSU lost.
The Huskies lost to unranked NC State 92-81 after beating the Wolfpack six straight games.
Saniya Rivers, who was a freshman on the South Carolina team that beat UConn for the national championship two years ago before transferring to NC State, had a career-best 33 points on 11 for 19 shooting to lead the Wolfpack (2-0), which lost last year to UConn at the XL Center, 91-69.
“In the past, we might have hung our heads a little bit when things didn’t go well but today, we just kept battling,” NC State coach Wes Moore said. “Obviously, it’s a great win to have on your resume.”
UConn was led by Bueckers (27 points) and Aaliyah Edwards (21 points) and freshman Qadence Samuels had 13.
“I told (NC State coach) Wes (Moore) that their team is 10 times better than it was last year,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “They’re more together, they play together better, they know who they are. He’s as good a coach there is in the country and today everything they did was better than us. They coached better, they played better, they were just on top of their game more than I remember.
“And we got our asses beat. Plain and simple.”
It was the first time UConn had lost to an unranked team since the Huskies lost to St. John’s last February.
Auriemma said last week that it would be difficult to play against the physical teams of the ACC and he was right. UConn struggled to get rebounds against the Wolfpack’s 6-5 center River Baldwin and 6-3 forward Mimi Collins. The Huskies were outrebounded by NC State 41-29.
“Getting rebounds is an attitude,” Auriemma said. “And we got a (bad) attitude towards rebounding. Cause it’s hard work. Everybody’s got to be engaged in it. And that has to change. Period. We’re not going to get any taller than we are right now.
“Ice (Brady) didn’t have the kind of impact I was hoping she would in this kind of game. Neither did Aubrey (Griffin), neither did Carol (Ducharme) – we need those guys to have an impact and they didn’t. But we have to figure out a way in spite of what our limitations are to be better. I don’t think we were great in the post, but you have to say, ‘How many rebounds did their guards get that our guards should have had?’
“I could on and on about the list of things I was disappointed in today.”
The Wolfpack found themselves in foul trouble early with three starters– Baldwin, Aziaha James and Madison Hayes – with two fouls each. UConn ended the first quarter with a 7-0 run punctuated by a Samuels’ 3 that gave the Huskies a 25-16 lead.
But NC State came alive in the second quarter. Zoe Brooks had three of NC State’s next four baskets, her last one cutting UConn’s lead to 30-24, and Maddie Cox’s 3 cut it to three. Rivers hit a free throw then stole the ball from Bueckers and hit a layup to tie the score at 30 with 5:44 left in the half.
The Wolfpack took their first lead with 2:18 left when Rivers hit two free throws to put her team up 38-37. But UConn led at halftime 43-42 after Samuels hit a shot and KK Arnold had the final basket.
The third quarter did not start well. Edwards tried to get a defensive rebound and got called for a foul. Ducharme was called for a charge driving to the basket. Edwards missed a jumper, then she was called for her third foul and Rivers hit one of two free throws to tie the score at 43. Bueckers drove to the hoop to put UConn up again but then got called for her third foul with 8:02 left.
The Wolfpack took their biggest lead, 55-50, with 4:08 left in the third. When Collins blocked a Bueckers’ shot, the Wolfpack scored on a Brooks’ shot to give NC State a 57-50 lead. Samuels stopped the bleeding with 3-pointer, but the Huskies still trailed 62-57 after three quarters.
Edwards hit a shot to open the fourth but the Wolfpack – fueled by the screaming crowd – were unstoppable.
“The two issues for me, were – big picture – this was the worst offensive performance, in terms of running our offense, in terms of ball movement, sharing the ball, moving without the ball, changing sides of the floor,” Auriemma said. “We were content to just … stand. Maybe that’s a lot of young guys being out on the floor or whatever. So that and defensively, we couldn’t get stops. At all. Those two things more than anything else. Our offense was non-existent and defensively we didn’t get stops.”