The score was 93-78. Kentucky made 18 threes and the Pack made three. Those are the numbers that decided the game on Sunday, but they are not the numbers that decide what this team is going to be in March. This team is gonna be fine.

Khamil Pierre scored 34 points and put up 18 of them in the first quarter. She did it while the Pack was getting smacked in the mouth and still clawed all the way back from 16 down to take a brief lead. That is not just a big night. That is a player accepting the role of the one who has to deliver when the game is tilting the wrong way. Not every team gets a player who steps into that space and owns it. Look up “beast” in the dictionary and Pierre’s picture is right there. If Zoe Brooks stays healthy, there is not a better one-two punch in the ACC. Both of them know this is their chance. The media has spent the preseason sleeping on the Pack, ignoring the fact that a dominant point guard and a relentless forward can take a team a long way. I will not be surprised if they are in the mix for a regular-season title and playing on Sunday of the ACC Tournament.

Even though Coach Moore might be reluctant to show it, you could see a glimmer in his eyes afterward. He sees the obvious things that need fixing, but those things are not physical limitations. The Pack has the bodies and the speed. The comeback from 16 down to go up by three against Kentucky says more about the heart this group is carrying than the final margin does. They never fully quit. That matters more in November than the threes that did not fall.

This team is a three-point threat away from a deep run in the NCAAs. Right now the offense is built on getting downhill, winning the paint, and living at the free-throw line, and that is enough to beat a lot of teams. But the best teams in March make you pay when you overcommit to the ball and the paint. If Brooks, Wooten, Samuels, Lunan, and the rest of the perimeter can become a consistent threat from deep, the Pack suddenly becomes a team that can punish help defense and stretch the floor the way the elite teams do. The pieces are already here. The shot just has to become reliable enough that opponents cannot load up on Pierre and Brooks and dare everyone else to beat them from outside. That is the difference between a good team that can win a lot of games and a team that can go deep when the bracket tightens.

Desiree Wooten showed her worth when Brooks went out. Coach is not asking her to be Zoe Brooks. He is asking her to go in, keep the offense organized, and not let the game get away while Brooks sits. She did that on Sunday. Wooten played 39 minutes, finished with five assists and three steals, and committed zero turnovers. She did not light it up from the field, but she also did not contribute to the loss with poor decision-making or empty possessions. If she scores 15 points on a given night, that is a bonus. The baseline is that the Pack stays stable when the ball is in her hands, and she cleared that bar against Kentucky.

Defensively, this group is elite. The first reaction is always going to be the 18 threes Kentucky made, but sometimes in basketball an opposing team just has a freakish night from deep. If these two teams played again tomorrow, the Pack would win. Their defense was better and quicker to the ball, and it negated Kentucky’s height advantage. Remember how Duke has taken the Pack out the last two years? They did it by being quicker to the ball on the glass. That is what this version of NC State looks like.

Qadence Samuels is a chaos-making machine on defense and nobody plays harder in her role. She logged 30 minutes against Kentucky, finished with four rebounds and a steal, and spent most of the afternoon making the player in front of her uncomfortable. She is a long, rangy guard who has the quicks to create the chaos and the heart to follow through with those talents. If Khamil Pierre’s picture is next to the word “beast,” then Samuels’ photo has to be right beside the word “chaos.” She presses, she digs, she recovers, and she does it for as long as Moore leaves her out there. That kind of constant pressure is part of why the Pack can create turnovers and force teams into the kind of possessions they do not want. Unsung Hero.

The threes still have to come. The defensive lapses on the perimeter are fixable because the talent is there to respond to correction. But the identity is already there, and the player who is willing to carry it when the game gets hard is already here.

Like I said, this team is gonna be fine.