Season ends for Spartans, but program is on the right track
The season came to a crashing conclusion today as the MSU Women’s Basketball Team fell to the NC State Wolfpack. This game was pretty much over as soon as it started. We commented after their first-round win that the Lady Spartans would need to clean up the turnovers against NC State. Well, that did not happen at all; in fact, MSU turned the rock over on three of their first four possessions. On the other end, the Wolfpack were having a three-point contest against one another, sinking five triples in the first quarter. They also had an alley-oop layup, which I will say was a nice-looking play. MSU only scored nine points in the opening ten minutes, getting tripled up 27-9 at that point. Grace VanSlooten scored four of the nine, the only Spartan to score more than once.
In the second quarter, a three-pointer on the opening possession pushed NC State’s lead beyond twenty points where it would stay for most of the quarter. They would hit five more triples in the 2nd and take a 47-23 lead to the half. VanSlooten was up to ten points, but none of her teammates had more than three. MSU had 11 turnovers, more than the number of FGs they made, ten. There was a near-seven minute stretch spanning the end of the 1st and beginning of the second where MSU went scoreless.
Like the 2nd quarter, NCSU’s first make after halftime was a triple, their 11th of the game. The lead moved past 30 with a little north of three remaining on the heels of more fantastic shooting by the Wofpack. While MSU managed to limit NC State to just four triples in the 3rd, the lead still grew, and the Spartans were down 69-36 with a quarter left. NC State’s 14 made 3s at this point was just one less than the total FGs made by MSU. 14 was also the number of MSU turnovers through three quarters. The bright spot for MSU in that quarter was junior Emma Shumate hitting a pair of triples, but VanSlooten only scored one point in that stanza.
In the fourth quarter, maintained their superiority and their willingness to launch bombs, though they suddenly were missing the majority of them. They only hit one triple in the final quarter. The Spartans, however, were unable to take advantage of the Wolfpack’s misses and had actually lost ground at the last TV timeout with four minutes to go. After the commercial, MSU had made a number of substitutions including taking senior star Julia Ayrault out of the game. Interestingly, she was put back in with 1:29 left and MSU down by 35. She took and hit a triple in the final minute for her final college points. NC State dribbled the clock out for the 83-49 win.
MSU made it one game further than they did a season ago, when they fell to North Carolina in the 8 vs. 9 game of the first round. We can look to the future now to see if Coach Robyn Fralick can bring more progress to the program. While MSU did have four seniors on this team – Ayrault, Nyla Hampton, Jaddan Simmons, and Jocelyn Tate – who will be moving on, there are a trio of four-star recruits joining next season. And we will see if Fralick can succeed in the transfer portal again this offseason.
Thanks for a great season and thank you to the four seniors for their contributions to the program. We wish them luck.