Major Observations From NC State's Season-Ending Loss to Michigan
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NC State hoped to shock the college basketball world by upsetting No. 2 seed Michigan in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. However, without a key guard in the mix, the Wolfpack simply couldn’t keep up with the Wolverines, falling 92-63 after Michigan scored 64 points in the second half.
Zam Jones and Khamil Pierre tried to carry the Wolfpack in the first half, but without the production and experience of Zoe Brooks, who sat out with an injury, Wes Moore’s group failed to keep contact and let things slip away.
Weathering the storm
Currently in Ann Arbor 📍#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/GEt71CEQYL
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The adversity of being an underdog wore NC State down in the first half, but it still managed to stay in the fight. The Wolfpack held an early one-point lead after the first quarter, but the Wolverines stormed out of the gate in the second quarter with an 11-0 run and outscored NC State 15-4 for an extended period.
With Brooks sidelined with her injury, the Pack struggled to handle Michigan’s full-court pressure and turned the ball over in bad situations repeatedly during the second quarter. The team gave the ball away six times in those 10 minutes, as the Wolverines aggressively trapped Jones and the other members of the Wolfpack trying to operate in pick and roll situations.
Dish served 🤝 Wolfpack eating 🍽️#MarchMadness x 🎥 ABC / @packwomensbball pic.twitter.com/dmFimdAfXX
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However, NC State didn’t let the moment get too big in the first half. Jones and Pierre steadied the ship offensively and stayed attached, never letting Michigan push things out of reach. The defense forced the Wolverines into some poor shots, also keeping the Wolfpack in the fight through most of the second quarter.
The Wolfpack ended the half on a 5-0 run as Jones canned a jumper in the lane. That run cut the Michigan lead to just five when both teams ran to the locker rooms at the half. It still felt as though NC State had a shot at that point before the Wolverines ultimately wore them down.
Lunan in the spotlight
NC State up 13-12 at the end of the first with 5 ties and 3 lead changes! pic.twitter.com/q6R6KYG1RE
— NC State WBB 🐺🏀 (@PackWomensBball) March 22, 2026
Freshman guard Ky’She Lunan needed to step up in Brooks’ absence and handled the role well in her team’s win over Tennessee. Taking on a No. 2 seed as a starting guard came with a totally different set of challenges for the Phoenix native, who struggled early in the game, particularly on the defensive end.
Lunan picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter, forcing Moore to his bench early. It also placed tremendous stress on Jones, who battled through a major size disadvantage against Michigan’s talented backcourt all afternoon. When she was in the game, Lunan struggled to make decisions fast enough to pick apart the high-pressure defense of the Wolverines.
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The freshman fouled out of the game halfway through the fourth quarter as Michigan’s lead ballooned to over 20 points. Lunan scored six points and turned the ball over four times in her first start of the season.
Not enough firepower
Without the 16 points per game from Brooks, NC State didn’t have nearly enough offensive firepower to hang with the Wolverines for the full 40 minutes. The Wolfpack’s only hope was to turn it into more of a defensive battle and play a possession-to-possession game, but the Wolverine defense sped up Moore’s group far too much for that to be a possibility.
Michigan forced 10 turnovers in the third quarter and ripped off a 9-0 run, followed by a 6-0 run to blow the game wide open in the penultimate quarter of the season for NC State. Pierre found herself increasingly frustrated in the paint, but still managed to score 15 points. Jones chipped in with 16 of her own, but no one else stepped up when the Pack needed buckets.
An explosion from beyond the arc in the second half also proved too much for NC State, as it couldn’t keep contact when the Wolverines buried eight 3-pointers in the final 20 minutes of the game. As the shots continued to fall for Syla Swords and Olivia Olson, the Wolfpack ran out of answers and accepted that its season had come to an end.
Tucker Sennett graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sports Journalism from the esteemed Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. A former basketball player, he has gained valuable experience working at Cronkite News and brings a deep passion for sports and reporting to his role as the NC State Wolfpack Beat Writer On SI.
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