PORTLAND, Ore. (Courtesy of NC State Athletics) – NC State women’s basketball is headed to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Final Four for just the second time in program history and the first time since 1998. The Wolfpack punched its ticket to the national semifinal by beating fourth-ranked and one-seeded Texas by a 76-66 score in Sunday afternoon’s Portland 4 regional final.

NC State moves on to Cleveland, Ohio, where the Final Four (Friday, April 5) and national championship (Sunday, April 7) games will be played at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse. The Wolfpack is the seventh team in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to start the season unranked in the AP Top 25 and reach the Final Four. The 1997-98 Wolfpack squad also previously accomplished that feat.

Five Wolfpack players scored in double figures, NC State’s first time having that many players do so in an NCAA Tournament game since its last trip to the Elite Eight in 2022.

Aziaha James led the team in scoring for the fourth time in as many NCAA Tournament games played this season with 27 points on the night. She set a new program record for most three pointers made in a single game, shooting 7-of-9 from beyond the arc. It also marked the most threes hit in any game by a member of the Pack since Jan. 30, 2020.

River Baldwin scored 16 points, 12 of those in the fourth quarter, while Saniya Rivers added 11 points and five assists, Zoe Brooks had 10 points and three assists and Mimi Collins contributed 10 points.

The Wolfpack lit it up from distance in the second period with a 4-of-7 mark from behind the arc. Aziaha James hit three of those herself to finish with a perfect 5-of-5 mark from three-point range and 21 points in the first half, her fifth time this season posting 20+ points in a single half.

NC State went on a 9-0 run that spanned less than a minute of the second quarter to put its lead into double figures (31-20) at the 6:30 mark, and Texas scored the last five of the half to put the Pack’s advantage at 12 (43-31) after 20 minutes.

After going up by as many as 18 points (40-22, 3:02) in the second quarter, NC State went through a dry spell in the third. The Wolfpack went nearly three and a half minutes without scoring, and Texas went on an 11-3 run to draw within six points (54-5, 1:06). James hit her sixth three of the game on the Pack’s last possession of the third quarter to send NC State to the fourth up nine (57-48), and the Pack never let Texas get closer than seven points in the final period.

The Wolfpack moves on to take on top-ranked South Carolina in the national semifinal on Friday, April 5. That game will tip off at either 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. on ESPN, and finalized game time and other info will be posted on the GoPack schedule page when available.