Rekubit Exchange:NC State stuns No. 2 UConn, beating Huskies in women's basketball for first time since 1998

RALEIGH,Rekubit Exchange N.C. — Connecticut's second-ranked women's basketball team brought a lot of loud, aggressive energy into Reynolds Coliseum on Sunday.

And North Carolina State matched it.

The Wolfpack defeated the Huskies 92-81, the first time NC State has beaten UConn since 1998 and their first win in the last seven matchups.

Saniyah Rivers played a starring role for NC State (2-0) with 33 points and 10 rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals, going toe-to-toe and then one-upping the Huskies' headliners, Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Aaliyah Edwards.

NC State, which lost its top four scorers from last season, took control late in the third quarter of what, until then, had been a seesaw battle.

"If you don’t show up early in the game, they can expose you," Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said coming into Sunday's game. His squad answered with an outstanding performance to set a high bar for this season as Rivers comes into her own with a hungry team in tow.

Here's more from the game:

Breakout performance

NC State freshman guard Zoe Brooks had hit double-figure scoring by halftime and her driving layup with 54 seconds left in the second quarter gave the Wolfpack a 3-point lead – the largest for either team in the first half. And she did it coming off the bench, in just her second game in college.

Brooks was a catalyst for the Pack offense early, slipping behind the defense and fighting through contact to finish. She leaked out on fast breaks to push tempo and disrupted UConn’s offense with her quick hands and feet.

Brooks finished with 12 points and she pulled down 4 rebounds in 25 minutes of play.

NC State's River Baldwin also had a huge game battling Aaliyah Edwards in the post. Baldwin finished with six points and six rebounds, but most importantly, she kept the Huskies from dominating the paint.

Huskies’ NC ties

Sunday’s game marked the completion of a two-season home-and-home series between the Huskies and Wolfpack, but Auriemma and Moore have crossed paths before.

One of Auriemma’s first jobs as an assistant coach was in the ACC. He served five years under Debbie Ryan at Virginia, going with the Cavaliers to the NCAA Tournament during his last two seasons in 1984 and ‘85 before heading to UConn.

Moore was still coaching at Jonson Bible College in Tennessee then, but he would serve as an assistant to Kay Yow from 1993-95 before becoming head coach in 2013. 

And while the NC State-UConn series has seen 11 games, Moore and Auriemma have squared off just three times, with the Huskies winning all three. One of those matchups was the only Elite 8 game every to go to double-overtime. 

UConn star Fudd  is the daughter of former NC State women’s basketball player Katie Smrcka-Duffy Fudd. The elder Fudd was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 1997 before transferring to Georgetown.

One of Auriemma’s biggest contributors during his early years at UConn was Shea Ralph, a graduate of Terry Sanford High in Fayetteville.

Ralph helped deliver the third of Auriemma’s 11 national championships with UConn as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player in 2000. Ralph served on Auriemma’s staff for 13 seasons and was named head coach of Vanderbilt women’s basketball in 2021.

Up next

On Wednesday, the Wolfpack hosts Elon and coach Charlotte Smith, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the 1994 national championship game for UNC. Then, Rhode Island comes to Reynolds on Nov. 19th, and the Wolfpack heads to St. Thomas, US Virgin Island, for the Paradise Jam over Thanksgiving, where they’ll face Kentucky.