Maryland Maryland/North Carolina State N.C. State Women's College Basketball recap on ESPN

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) – Defense has set the tone for North Carolina State (No. 20 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP) all season. It didn't change Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference women's tournament.

Tynesha Lewis and Carisse Moody keyed a second half run as the Wolfpack broke open a close game to beat Maryland 74-61.

The third-seeded Wolfpack (19-9) won their first ACC postseason game since 1996 and will play No. 25 Clemson in one semifinal Sunday. The second-seeded Tigers advanced by beating North Carolina 75-57.

Sixth-seeded Maryland (17-11) swept the Wolfpack during the regular season, including a 21-point win six days ago. But the ACC's top defense limited the Terrapins to 33 percent shooting this time.

"We did our best job against them defensively," Wolfpack coach Kay Yow said. "Defense has been our bread and butter for a big part of the season, so it's really great to see us play that well on the end of the court."

Moody finished with 22 points, including 10 straight for the Wolfpack after the Terrapins closed to 58-51 with 4:04 left. Lewis added 14.

"They really went the distance tonight," Yow said of Lewis and Moody. "Both made keys baskets and key plays all the way around."

Moody was 5-for-7 from the field and 12-for-14 from the foul line and added nine rebounds.

After a 21-21 tie at the break, Yow decided Moody would be the main target inside over the final 20 minutes.

"We just went back to the stuff that had been the best for us all year and tried to go out and execute it the best we could," Yow said.

"I compliment State on getting the ball inside," Maryland coach Chris Weller said. "We won the battle of the paint, but only by two points. That normally has to be our big area."

N.C. State was up 26-25 with 18:09 left before Lewis sank a pair of 3-pointers 53 seconds apart and Moody made a shot in the lane to key a 12-0 run.

"We fell asleep there for a minute and they got a couple little easy buckets," Weller said. "Then we got away from taking the shots we take. We were trying to do things we don't do particularly well. You just can't win that way."

Once up by 13, Moody made a layup, a three-point play and sank two more free throws in a span of two minutes as N.C. State went up 46-30.

To make matters worse for the Terrapins, top scorer Deedee Warley, who finished with 26 points, picked up her fourth foul in the middle of Moody's scoring spree and went to the bench.

Maryland rallied late, but the Wolfpack made 12 straight free throws down the stretch as they continued the best single-season turnaround in ACC history. N.C. State was 2-6 in league play in the first half, and finished 7-1 down the stretch.

The team also improved to 8-1 since Lewis was switched to point guard.

Warley had 12 of Maryland's 21 first-half points, but the rest of the team was a combined 4-for-19 as neither team led by more than four points in the opening 20 minutes.

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Women's College Basketball Scoreboard

Maryland Clubhouse

North Carolina State Clubhouse