The Wolfpack never trailed against Notre Dame Thursday night.
RALEIGH – The NC State women's basketball team (11-3, 1-0 ACC) stunned visiting No. 2 Notre Dame Thursday evening in both teams' Atlantic Coast Conference opener, defeating the Fighting Irish 70-62 on Kay Yow Court inside Reynolds Coliseum.
FINAL SCORE FROM RALEIGH:
— NC State WBB (@PackWomensBball) December 30, 2016
Us - 70
No. 2 Notre Dame - 62
Let's go!! Thank you, #WPN!!! pic.twitter.com/YbloG73UE6
The Wolfpack never once trailed in the game, leading for 38 minutes and 54 seconds en route to handing the Fighting Irish just their second loss in ACC play since joining the league at the outset of the 2013-14 season. Prior to Thursday evening's contest, No. 2 Notre Dame was 47-1 in regular-season ACC games.
"I couldn't be prouder of our kids," NC State head coach Wes Moore said in his postgame press conference. "That's a great team over there. I think I counted eight McDonald's All-Americans [on Notre Dame's roster] and Muffet [McGraw] is a Hall of Fame coach. Anytime you put great players and a great coach together, it's hard to do what our team just did. I couldn't be prouder of them."
When you beat the No. 2 team in the nation! pic.twitter.com/AI8h420bQV
— NC State WBB (@PackWomensBball) December 30, 2016
Dominique Wilson led the Wolfpack with 18 points and was joined in double figures by 17 points from Miah Spencer (seven rebounds, six assists) and Jennifer Mathurin's ninth career double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Wolfpack shot 24-57 (.421) from the field, went 8-19 (.421) from beyond the arc, and posted a near-perfect mark of 14-15 (.933) from the free-throw line.
Notre Dame's Marina Mabrey led all scorers with 22 points on 8-14 shooting. She was joined in double figures by Lindsay Allen's 12 points on 5-14 shooting.
Fast Facts
NC State's win snaps Notre Dame's streak of 35 straight ACC wins.
With two assists (finished with six), Miah Spencer became just the fifth player in program history to achieve 1,300 points and 400 assists in a career.
With three points (finished with six), Chelsea Nelson surpassed 500 career points.
NC State held Notre Dame (12-2, 0-1 ACC) to its lowest scoring quarter (six points in the third) of the season.
The Wolfpack outscored the Fighting Irish 12-7 in bench points and 11-7 on the fast break.
Quotes from the Wolfpack
Miah Spencer on emphasis in practice leading up to the game: "We mainly focused on not turning the ball over because they have a good transition game. That's how they score the majority of their points. We did a couple of drills in practice where we couldn't turn the ball over or it was the other team's ball. We really focused on not turning the ball over and making the right decisions and boxing out."
Jennifer Mathurin on not losing the lead late in the game: "We have a tendency to let up in the fourth quarter. We learned that with Tulane and LSU; those were huge games for us that we let slip in the last minutes. That was the emphasis the whole time - Miah would say all the time to stay focused and get the win.
