With 45 seconds remaining in the second half and UNC holding onto a precarious 63-62 lead, Tar Heel senior guard Nikki Teasley dribbled out the shot clock, only to attempt an off-balance shot that missed badly.
Wolfpack forward Talisha Scates rebounded the miss and called timeout. Following the huddle, Scates scored what proved to be the game-winning basket in N.C. State's 66-63 win Thursday at the Smith Center.
Said Teasley: "We ran our bread-and-butter: me going baseline. I thought I had a good drive. Apparently, I was wrong."
Much of what UNC did on offense throughout the game was wrong. Careless passes, missed layups and poor shot selection all were part of the Tar Heels' arsenal.
"It was a shooting nightmare for us," said North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell after her team shot 26 percent for the game and 19 percent from 3-point range.
"We're usually a good 3-point shooting team, but tonight we just took some really bad shots."
Many of the bad outside shots were the result of a lack of patience from the Tar Heels when they tried to establish an inside game.
And N.C. State's front line of Scates, Kaayla Chones and Amy Simpson, which combined for 34 rebounds, made it nearly impossible for North Carolina to get second-chance opportunities.
"We knew rebounds were going to be a big factor, period," said State coach Kay Yow, whose team out-rebounded North Carolina 59-40. "I think boxing out and keeping them off the glass was big for us, especially against a team that rebounds as well as they do."
