RALEIGH, NC – The UNC Greensboro women’s basketball team opened its 37th season of competition with a 76-46 setback to No. 23 NC State on Friday night at Reynolds Coliseum.
Junior guard Jasmine Byrd led UNCG (0-1) with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and had a game-high six steals, while sophomore guard Kemena Brooks notched 10 points. Junior forward KaLeah Latham added nine points
Khadijah Whittington led NC State (1-0) with career-highs in points with 21 and rebounds with 16. Tiffany Stansbury, a second team All-ACC honoree last season scored 15 points and Keisha Brown had 10 points.
NC State led 5-0 just over a minute into the game when Byrd nailed a 3-pointer at the 18:00 mark for the Spartans first field goal of the season. With NCSU still leading 11-6, Gillian Goring, who stands 6-7, scored five quick points off the bench to put the Wolfpack up 16-6 with 13:10 to go.
Senior Shanika Jackson answered back for UNCG with a layup off a steal from Byrd at 11:59 to make it 18-10, but that was the closest the Spartans would get in the opening half. NC State closed the stanza on a 24-10 run to take a 42-20 lead to the locker room. Whittington led all scores in the first half with 15 points, while Byrd and Latham paced UNCG with five points apiece.
NC State extended its lead to 53-24 at the 15:34 mark on a Rachel Stockdale 3-pointer, but the Spartans answered with 14 of the next 15 points to cut their deficit to 54-38 with 9:06 to go in the game. Back-to-back 3-point plays by Latham and Brooks and a 3-pointer by Byrd led the charge for the Spartans.
The Wolfpack would go 7:08 without a field goal to allow UNCG back in the game. Monica Pope snapped the shooting drought with a jumper from the wing with 8:28 remaining. From there, the home team scored eight more in a row to take a 64-38 lead as they cruised to the victory.
"I thought we never quit tonight and stayed composed throughout the game and I thought that would be very key tonight," head coach Lynne Agee said. "NC State was just bigger, stronger, faster and we knew that coming in."
UNCG hosts its annual Marriott Thanksgiving Tournament beginning next Friday at Fleming Gym. The host Spartans will take on Longwood at 1 pm, before Ohio and East Carolina clash in the nightcap at 3 pm. Meanwhile, NC State turns right around and visits Saint Joseph’s on Sunday at 2 pm in Philadelphia.
GAME NOTES: UNCG has opened on the road 11 straight years and is 3-8 in that time span... UNCG is 18-19 all-time in season opening games and 6-9 since the program elevated to Division I status in 1991-92... The Spartans last faced an ACC opponent when they began the 2003-04 season at Virginia. The Cavaliers came out on top 71-44 in Charlottesville... UNCG played 13 players, including the debuts of junior Brittany Frazier and freshmen Ashley Ling, Gini Grimsley and Ashley Mullins.
AGATE
NC STATE 76, UNC GREENSBORO 46
UNC GREENSBORO (0-1)
BYRD, Jasmine 5-10 0-2 12; BROOKS, Kemena 4-8 2-3 10; LATHAM,
KaLeah 2-6 5-7 9; JACKSON, Shanika 2-3 0-1 4; FRAZIER, Brittany 1-4
1-3 3; Dixon, Jasmine 1-1 0-1 2; CURRENT, Ashley 1-4 0-2 2;
CHAMBERLAIN, Meghan 1-7 0-0 2; GRIMSLEY, Gini 1-2 0-0 2; BLAIR,
Caroline 0-1 0-0 0; MULLINS, Ashley 0-0 0-0 0; LING, Ashley 0-3 0-0
0; Otamiri, Irene 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-51 8-19 46.
NC STATE (1-0)
Whittington, K. 5-14 11-16 21; Stansbury, Tiffany 7-12 1-2 15;
Brown, Keisha 3-9 2-2 10; Stockdale, Rachel 3-5 1-1 8; Pope, Monica
4-8 0-0 8; Goring, Gillian 2-2 1-1 5; Fields, Shayla 1-2 0-1 2;
Reaves, Sasha 0-1 2-2 2; Wilhelm, Danielle 1-6 0-0 2; Key, Ashley
1-10 0-0 2; McCollins, Tiffany 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 27-69 19-27
76.
Halftime: NC State, 42-20. 3-point goals-UNC Greensboro 2-4 (BYRD, Jasmine 2-4), NC State 3-18 (Brown, Keisha 2-4; Stockdale, Rachel 1-2; Pope, Monica 0-2; Fields, Shayla 0-1; Wilhelm, Danielle 0-4; Key, Ashley 0-5). Fouled out—UNC Greensboro-CHAMBERLAIN, Meghan, NC State-None. Rebounds-UNC Greensboro 41 (FRAZIER, Brittany 6), NC State 46 (Whittington, K. 16). Assists-UNC Greensboro 10 (BYRD, Jasmine 4), NC State 21 (Key, Ashley 7). Total fouls-UNC Greensboro 23, NC State 20. A-1367.
- UNCG -