UM women race to early lead, upset No. 4 N.C. State 73-59 with gritty guard play
All week University of Miami women’s basketball coach Katie Meier implored her players not to be intimidated by 4th-ranked North Carolina State. She urged them to take Thursday night’s game five minutes at a time, get to the fourth quarter and try to hang on.
“We’re good, too,” she reminded her Hurricanes, who made a historic Elite Eight run last spring but had been mired in a funk of late, losing four of their past five conference games.
They heeded her advice and upset the Wolfpack 73-59 after leading for almost the entire game. N.C. State made a few runs, but never got closer than six points in the second half. It was the biggest regular season Miami win since knocking off No. 4 Louisville in 2021.
Meier was doused with water by her players in the jubilant locker room after the victory.
“This was a great win,” Meier said. “We’ve been frustrated. We’ve been down. And we’ve been embarrassed about how we played. There were moments last week when the wheels might have fallen off if we scored just eight points in the third quarter, but we stayed faithful. We came up with big plays and players had special performances.”
She heaped praise on guards Lashae Dwyer and Jasmyne Roberts, who had 18 points apiece and stepped up as leaders during the week.
“These two right here were really dialed in and really focused,” Meier said of the two guards. “They were different. If other players were a little silly, screwing around in practice the last couple of days, they jumped up and I think that’s what we needed. They were very businesslike and had high expectations playing against an amazing N.C. State team.”
Shaeann Day-Wilson also scored 18 on 7-of-14 shooting.
Dwyer, whose family flew in from Toronto to see her play in person for the first time, went 8-of-12 and had six rebounds. She said she was inspired by her mother, four siblings, an aunt and family friends who traveled for the game.
“It was a special moment,” Dwyer said. “It was really frustrating the start of the ACC season, just getting our confidence back after those losses..this was a great one for us because we were all hungry coming in. We were locked in. We had to change. We want to be that great team, so we had to change. Everybody did their job.”
The Hurricanes outshot the Pack 75 percent to 20 percent in the first quarter and opened a 21-10 lead. They ended the quarter on a 10-0 run while the heavily favored Pack missed 11 of their final 12 shots of the quarter.
Miami continued to dominate, stretched the lead to 14 in the second quarter and entered halftime ahead 43-32.
Any question as to whether the Hurricanes could keep it going was answered when Day-Wilson nailed a three to start the second half. N.C. State cut the gap to six points with six minutes to go, but UM responded with a 14-2 run to put the game out of reach.
When a Dwyer three capped a 10-0 UM run late in the game, making it 70-52, fans at the Watsco Center began chanting “It’s Great To Be A Miami Hurricane!”
N.C. State (15-2, 3-2 ACC) had only one blemish entering the game, a one-point last-second loss to No. 14 Virginia Tech. But they went cold against Miami. The Wolfpack shot 28 percent for the game and UM’s bench outscored the Pack’s 28-0. The Hurricanes took advantage of the absence of injured 6-5 Wolfpack center River Baldwin and dominated 38-18 in the paint.
Miami had 11 steals, forced the Wolfpack into 16 turnovers and scored 22 points off those turnovers.
Mimi Collins led N.C. State with 18 points, Saniya Rivers had 17 and Zoe Brooks added 14.
“Just got our butts kicked,” said Wolfpack coach Wes Moore. “This week in practice we were turning the ball over so no surprise – we came out here tonight and turned it over.
“We’re going to get everybody’s A game. Although we’re probably not going to be ranked as high now, when you come in here ranked fourth in the country you’re going to get hit in the mouth a few times. And you have to respond to that and we didn’t. We didn’t play hard enough.”
The Hurricanes (12-5, 2-4) play at No. 23 North Carolina on Jan. 25 and return home for a Jan. 28 afternoon game against Duke.