MOP James, Wolfpack rout Horns, reach Final Four

PORTLAND, Ore. — NC State coach Wes Moore admitted his team’s Elite Eight loss in 2022 — a double-overtime heartbreaker against UConn — haunted him, leaving him one win away from getting the program back to its first Final Four since legendary coach Kay Yow led the Wolfpack there in 1998.

Two years later, those ghosts have been exorcised.

NC State, which started the season unranked and was picked to finish eighth in the ACC, clinched its first trip to the women’s Final Four in more than 25 years with a 76-66 victory over top-seeded Texas in the Portland 4 Regional final on Sunday.

NC State became the first team to make the Final Four after being unranked in the Associated Press preseason poll since Washington did it in the 2015-16 season.

The Wolfpack will face another 1-seed in South Carolina for a spot in the national championship game.

NC State became the third 3-seed to make the Final Four in the past four tournaments; prior to this stretch, a 3-seed hadn’t made the Final Four since Oklahoma in 2010.

After beating 2-seed Stanford in the Sweet 16, Moore entered his postgame news conference doused in water following a postgame celebration, quipping that reporters should call him Elvis.

He wasn’t soaked this time, though. Instead, he donned a white hat with red Final Four writing.

“They didn’t get me bad today,” Moore said of his players. “Hey, I’ve been waiting a long time to put one of these on. I couldn’t wait any longer.”

Added junior guard Aziaha James, the region’s Most Outstanding Player: “It’s been 26 years since the Wolfpack brought it home. It’s good to light it up for Hillsborough.”

Prior to Sunday, the Wolfpack were 1-5 against No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, last beating one in the 1998 Sweet 16 — the same year Yow took her squad to the program’s first and, before now, only Final Four, where they fell to Louisiana Tech.

With the NC State men also making the Final Four on Sunday with a victory over Duke, it marks the first time both the men’s and women’s teams have made that stage in school history.

“Just a flood of emotions and thoughts,” said Moore, who was an assistant for two seasons under Yow. “I think of Kay Yow. … I think of the players two years ago that were a double-overtime game away from being in this exact spot. And then I think of these players, again, overcoming all the doubts and questions and just …

“Final Four, y’all. I mean, this is my 35th year as a head coach, and it’s amazing — very emotional — on Easter Sunday. Unbelievable.”

James showcased why she’s one of the most improved players in the country and one of the hottest in March. Her 21 first-half points were the most scored before halftime by any player this tournament, and she sank a career-high seven 3s, including all five of her attempts in the first 20 minutes to help NC State impose its will early.

James, then a freshman, was one of two players on this year’s roster who were on the team for that 2022 Elite Eight run, but she didn’t appear in the game. She averaged 4.2 points that season and then 6.8 the season after before emerging as a full-time starter and first-team All-ACC player as a junior.

“People didn’t know my name my freshman year, but you know my name now,” the guard said.

“I’m used to seeing kids develop. And Aziaha is an unbelievable example,” Moore said. “Now here she is, reaping the benefits [of sticking with the program]. It’s really awesome. She’s worked so hard over the summer. And her confidence. She used to maybe hang her head if things didn’t go well, if a shot didn’t go in, if I got on her. But now she is a woman. And she handles adversity and keeps coming back.”

NC State shot a whopping 9-for-18 from 3-point range, which Texas (1-for-6) couldn’t keep up with, and the Wolfpack also held a 16-3 edge in fast-break scoring.

James alone made as many 3s as Texas managed total baskets outside the paint.

When it wasn’t James making a big play, it was Saniya Rivers (11 points, 5 assists) making plays in transition, Mimi Collins hitting 3s, Zoe Brooks getting to the free throw line or River Baldwin asserting herself down low. Emblematic of NC State’s season-long offensive balance, those five all finished in double figures.

“Their athleticism and length at guard was a real concern going in,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “The first thing on the board, on the defensive side, was transition defense. We had 16 points we gave up at halftime. They didn’t get any the second half.

“Number two was dribble penetration. So to me, that was the two things that we really had pinpointed and talked about. And we just had a hard time handling.”

The Longhorns trailed by as many as 18 late in the second quarter — their largest deficit at any point this season. They pulled within six toward the end of the third, but James answered with a 3, and Texas never really threatened after that.

The Longhorns fell to 0-3 this season when allowing 76 or more points, bowing out in the Elite Eight for the third time during Schaefer’s tenure in Austin, which started ahead of the 2020-21 season. Texas is still seeking its first Final Four appearance since 2003 and fourth overall.

“Today we probably weren’t as tough as we had been in the past over the last two months,” Schaefer said. “But, again, it’s not like we woke up and went, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be tough today.’ It happens sometimes in athletics.”

Texas brings back star Madison Booker, a rising sophomore who had a team-high 17 points Sunday, as well as most of its other major contributors. Point guard Rori Harmon, who missed the second half of the season with an ACL tear, is slated to return as well.

“I can say that with great confidence — if we lose Shaylee [Gonzales] and Hadi [Khadija Faye], the class that we have coming in, Rori back healthy, and everybody else a year older and a year wiser, I’ll be sitting here next March 31,” Schaefer said.

Meanwhile, NC State will prepare to face the top team in the country in South Carolina, which hasn’t lost a game in almost a calendar year.

“Obviously, the best team in the country,” Moore said. “But you’re not playing a four-out-of-seven series. You’re playing one game.

“Hey, right now you could tell me we’re playing the Trail Blazers, and I’d feel OK. We’re in the Final Four. Bring them on.”