RALEIGH — After falling to No. 9 Oklahoma in the ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge on Wednesday, NC State bounced back with a gritty victory back home in Reynolds Coliseum, beating Seton Hall 61-53 in Sunday’s matchup. Head coach Wes Moore helped his team overcome yet another difficult shooting performance, as the Wolfpack made just 35.9% of its shots in the win.
The veteran coach was proud of the effort of his team, particularly in the second half. However, he also revealed that sophomore center Lorena Awou was suspended indefinitely, as she was not on the bench during the victory.
What Moore said
The Wolfpack dealt with an illness that forced forward Khamil Pierre and guard Qadence Samuels to the bench for the Seton Hall game. Freshman guard Adelaide Jernigan also dealt with the illness and did not make an appearance against the Pirates. However, Awou’s absence did not fall in line with the sickness the Wolfpack was dealing with.
“Lorena, we’re just going through a time right now where she’s kind of suspended for the moment, and we’ll kind of see where that goes,” Moore said. “Khamil didn’t practice all week, and this morning she came in during shoot-around and had an IV… Qadence missed a day or so of practice as well because of it. We had coaches that were out for a couple of days as well.”
Pierre gutted things out for the Wolfpack, scoring 11 points and tallying eight rebounds. All of her scoring came in the second half, as she helped NC State break out of a fourth-quarter scoring drought that nearly cost the group the game. Moore was particularly impressed with her effort as she was dealing with a serious illness throughout the week…