For the second-straight week, the country’s No. 1-ranked team was taken down. Here’s how NC State toppled Notre Dame, in addition to other significant developments from the past week of women’s college hoops:
Wolfpack outlast Irish
Notre Dame entered Sunday’s matchup at NC State ranked No. 1 in the nation, with a chance to clinch the regular-season ACC championship and a 20-game winning streak. After 50 minutes of high-level hoops that featured 21 lead changes, the Irish exited Raleigh with none of those honors, as the Wolfpack took down the nation’s top-ranked team 104-95 in a double-overtime thriller.
When grad guard Madison Hayes hit a pair of pressure-packed free throws with four seconds remaining in regulation, giving NC State a three-point lead, it seemed like the home team had secured the upset. Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron, however, had other plans, with the senior guard salvaging a broken in-bounds play by draining a contested 3-pointer with less than one second on the clock to tie the game and force overtime.
Usually such situations would send all the momentum in the Irish’s direction, with the Wolfpack, spirits sapped, resigned to a hard-fought overtime loss. Instead, NC State maintained their composure during the competitive, back-and-forth…
