NC State improved to 2-0 with an 80-45 win over Campbell on Wednesday night at Reynolds Coliseum, the program’s 1,100th victory. The final margin was comfortable, but the game had a slower opening than the Pack would have preferred before the defensive pressure took over.

Campbell scored 16 in the first quarter. From there the Wolfpack tightened things. They held the Camels to 7 in the second and 6 in the third, building a lead that reached 41 points. NC State finished with 20 steals, 24 points off Campbell’s 24 turnovers, and 31 fast-break points. The Pack shot 33-of-67 (49 percent) from the field and scored 58 points in the paint.

Khamil Pierre led the way with 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 11 rebounds, her second straight double-double to open the season. She also added three steals and two blocks. Zoe Brooks scored 16 points with five assists and four steals. Desiree Wooten, Ky’She Lunan, and Brooks each had five assists. Freshman Annsley Trivette scored 10 points in 13 minutes off the bench.

Coach Wes Moore was measured afterward. “Yeah, we had a little slow start at first,” he said. “Probably midway through the first quarter into the second, we gave up 16 points in the first quarter, so that wasn’t great. But we were able to come back—hold them to seven in the second and six in the third. From that standpoint, I thought it was pretty good.”

He liked the guard play. “I did like the fact that our three starting guards—Dez, Kashi, and Zoe—all had five assists. That’s what you want out of those players. I love Zoe scoring, or whoever it is, but you also have to get everybody else involved. I thought they did a great job of that.”

Pierre and Brooks both talked about the second-quarter shift. “I think we were just more mentally locked in,” Pierre said. “We weren’t jumping out of position. We talked about that at halftime, and coach talked about last game how we kind of let up in the second. So we just were intentional again.” Trivette pointed to the turnovers creating easy looks: “Yeah, we caused a lot of turnovers to get open, wide-open layups. So I think that was a big thing.”

Moore was less satisfied with the post defense and the early pick-and-roll coverage. “Our post defense needs some work, and we’re going to have a real test Sunday,” he said. “We’ve got to figure some things out in a hurry… We also had trouble defending the pick-and-roll on the ball to start the game, so we had to switch that up… We gave up way too many layups. We’ve got to fix that in a hurry.”

He also noted that the aggressive style is still a work in progress. “We’re not doing it for 40 minutes like I would like to see… When you’re playing that kind of defense, you’ve got to really rely on your teammate to have your back. We’ve played now officially two games, and we’ve got 30-something—probably more—ahead of us. So it’s a work in progress, but yeah, that’s who we want to be.”

Trivette’s early minutes provided a spark against the zone. Pierre praised her afterward: “I mean, that’s what she does. She comes up every morning. She puts in the work. She’s super dedicated. She’s eager to learn, and I just tell her to trust her work. I think she’s doing exactly that.”

The Pack now turns its attention to No. 20 Kentucky on Sunday in Charlotte. Moore called it “a big challenge and a big opportunity.” Pierre, who has SEC experience, said the team is ready: “Just reminding everyone that… we’re here for a reason. We’re more than capable, and there’s no reason that we can’t go out there and compete and win the game.”

The final score looks clean. The film will show the stretches where the pressure created easy offense and the stretches where the Pack still needs to clean up the defense in the paint and on the ball. Sunday will be the first real measuring stick.