Rapid Start in the Raleigh Rumble

RALEIGH – The Wolfpack club women’s basketball team took the court Saturday morning bright and early to participate in the Raleigh Rumble. The Raleigh Rumble is a season opening tournament hosted by N.C. State in Carmichael Gymnasium.

The tournament has three pools of four teams making for a total of 12 teams. Each team plays against every team in their pool. N.C. State was in pool one along with Coastal Carolina, App State and Duke.

Pool two had High Point, Radford, Wake Forest and UNC Charlotte (White). Lastly pool three had UNC Charlotte (Blue), UNC Pembroke, Virginia Tech and James Madison University.

Pool play is completed in one day and the teams are then seeded based on their performance and put into a single elimination tournament, which is held on Sunday, November 12th.

This tournament holds a lot of games in a small period of time. The Wolfpack played at 10 A.M. then immediately after that at 11:15 A.M. then lastly at 1:45 P.M. It is important to make a quick start to all the madness and that is exactly what the Wolfpack did.

As the opening buzzer sounded to start the game it was hard not to be excited, as it is the beginning of the sensational basketball season. The Wolfpack put out their starting five to face Coastal Carolina.

The Wolfpack played thrilling defense that lead to an air ball on Coastal’s first possession. Then #20, Wolfpack’s three-point specialist, comes down for a quick 3. The Wolfpack moved the ball with great passes and got great open shots the whole game.

They opened the game with a 9-0 start turning Coastal over on 3 of their first 4 possessions. They played a zone defense and that helped them get off to a huge lead in the game, and should help them be victorious in this tournament.

Their weakness on defense is giving up offensive rebounds and allowing open 3 point shots. #21 runs the Wolfpack offense, as she is unselfish with the ball and that can help set up #20 to continue knocking down her open 3 point shots. At one point in the first half, the Wolfpack’s soft spot on defense started to show as they gave up 4 straight 3’s allowing Coastal to cut the lead to 22-18.

Many people believe that great teams go on runs at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half. The Wolfpack showed signs of building a great team this year because at halftime the Wolfpack built their lead to a score of 26-18. Additionally, after the five minute halftime break, the Wolfpack extended their lead to 15 going up 33-18.

The Wolfpack started the second half with the same players that started the game. However, they adjusted to man-to-man probably hoping to take away Coastal’s 3 point shot.

Overall the Wolfpack dominated the second half leading to a score of 48-29 and they let #21 make some incredible dribbling moves to run out the clock for the final score and a Wolfpack victory to start off the Raleigh Rumble.

All of the tournament’s games are held in Carmichael and it is possible to watch two games at once. Glancing at the other teams in their pool, it looked like the Wolfpack would win all of their pool games.

The Wolfpack are a favorable team to win this tournament because they have great team play and have a leader in #21 who was the main point guard. In the second half she had a senseless double dribble.

There are two ways to respond to a mistake. One is that you can let it defeat you and your play suffers because of one mishap or you can move on. It was encouraging for the Wolfpack to see that her mistake challenged her to play harder she had an incredible assist and then a steal leading to an easy layup.

It is always great to see when great players understand there is nothing they can do but move on and get in the zone and help their team win. With a great leader, a couple of three point specialists and good ball movement the Wolfpack should come home with a championship from the Raleigh Rumble tournament.