Wolfpack women get first ACC win

North Carolina State University

Wolfpack women get first ACC win

By N.C. State sports information

Feb 1, 2009

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Shayla Fields scored 15 of her 19 points after halftime to fuel an NC State come-from-behind 57-46 win at Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon from Cassell Coliseum.

The victory improves NC State (9-12, 1-5 ACC) to 10-0 all-time against Virginia Tech (10-11, 1-6 ACC) and 125-0 when allowing less than 50 points.

In gaining its first league win of the season, the Wolfpack shot 51.9 percent from the field after halftime. A 24-10 run broke open a 28-all score at the 15:41 mark of the second.

Sharnise Beal added 14 points for the Pack. Nikki Davis led Virginia Tech with 14.

A Nikitta Gartrell layup gave the Pack a 30-28 lead at the 14:21 mark of second half – the clubs first lead since it was 11-10 with 8:40 left in the opening stanza.

The lead grew to 42-34 after a shot clock-beating three-pointer from 25 feet by Fields with 8:16 left.

The Hokies never got closer than six and the lead would expand to 14 on a Beal layup with 4:18 to go.

First half action saw neither team finding much rhythm on offense. NC State took a 12-8 lead after a free throw from Lucy Ellison at the 12:00 mark.

That was followed by a stretch where the Pack went five minutes until its next bucket and would go another 5:14 until a Gartrell layup with 1:46 to go until intermission. At that juncture the visitors felt pretty good only trailing 20-16 after two long scoring droughts.

The Hokies went into their locker room with a 23-18 lead. Both teams shot around 30-percent and turned the ball over 11 times in the opening 20 minutes, but the difference was Virginia Tech’s ability to get to the free throw line and convert 9-of-11 attempts, while the Wolfpack went just 1-of-2.

NC State continues its road swing at No. 8/9 Maryland Thursday at Comcast Center beginning at 7 p.m. The game is available on ACCSelect.com.