The women’s basketball team got the best of the North Carolina State Wolfpack Wednesday night, 95-84.
Senior Tierney Jenkins was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Nov. 15, and lived up to that reputation by getting her third double-double in as many games this season, scoring 22 points and getting 11 rebounds in the big win for the Crimson Tide.
The Tide’s newfound up-tempo, high-pressure attack imposed its will in the Wolfpack, forcing two turnovers and leading the team to a 6-0 lead just more than two minutes into the game.
The rest of the half was hard fought, with the Wolfpack keeping it close until a clutch play from junior Alicia Mitcham gave the Tide the double-digit lead it held for the remainder of the game.
“Our theme is relentlessness,” said junior Erika Russell, who ended the game with 18 points, four rebounds and three steals. “Having intensity through the entire game built our confidence and it got us a lot of easy baskets in the first half tonight.”
Working off of a 13-point lead at halftime, the Tide started off the second half with yet another 6-0 run, ending with a Wolfpack timeout. That run sparked the Tide to take a 20-point lead it would keep until a late charge by the Wolfpack brought the deficit down to the final 11 points.
Fouls were a big problem for the both teams. The Wolfpack had two players foul out and one more with four fouls, giving up two four-point play opportunities. Jasmine Robinson converted her opportunity in the first half, giving the Tide a nine-point lead and capping a 13-4 run.
The Tide had its own foul trouble, with three foul-outs in the game. Freshman Kaneisha Horn was charged with a technical and fouled out midway through the second half with only two points and one rebound in 11 minutes. Robinson and Russell also fouled out with 37 points and nine rebounds between the two.
This win was a big stride for head coach Wendell Hudson’s program, moving forward towards a potential NCAA tournament bid. Hudson thinks it is too early to be thinking about postseason basketball, but Jenkins has her eyes set on the tournament.
“From the moment we started practice, we set goals,” Jenkins said. “We thought today was a big day for us to prove we want to be in the NCAA tournament.
“It’s plastered in our minds,” she said. “You can’t tell us any different.”
Hudson was more focused on that game and how it improved the team.
“For starters, NC State is a really good basketball team and a very good program,” Hudson said. “That being said, we pretty much had control of the game, but we have to finish better than that. We aren’t as happy with the way we finished as we should be.”
Finishing the game will be a big point in practice as the team gets right back to work preparing for its first road game at Georgia Southern on Friday.
“We’re just going to work on finishing the game, along with our defense,” Hudson said. “We get our first road test this weekend, and that’s going to be interesting for our team, for our players.”
