The first half against Liberty was the kind of start Wes Moore will not accept for long. The Pack was out-physicaled, gave up easy drives, and got beat on the offensive glass. With Zoe Brooks out, the offense looked like it was still searching for its next option, and the free throws (14 points left on the table) kept the game closer than it should have been. Moore said it plainly afterward: they blew the doors off in the first half.

What matters more for this group is what happened after the break. NC State outscored Liberty 43-22 in the second half, flipped the offensive rebounding from 6-11 at the half to 12-2 the rest of the way, and held the Flames scoreless for the final 8:48. That is not a small adjustment. That is a team that decided it was tired of getting pushed around and did something about it. The 27 points off turnovers were the clearest sign that the defensive identity Moore has been building still showed up when the half-court offense stalled.

The freshmen are the part of this game that travels. Kamora Pruitt hit three threes in the fourth quarter when the Pack still needed someone to make a shot, and she did it without hesitation. Annsley Trivette checked in and immediately changed the energy, finishing 4-of-5 with seven offensive boards. Qadence Samuels grabbed 11 rebounds and said afterward that she never let her head drop. Moore called Pruitt a player with ice water in her veins, and the fourth quarter backed that up. Playing a full game without Brooks is not ideal, but the fact that multiple people were willing to step into bigger roles is something this team will need if the point guard’s hamstring keeps her out longer than anyone wants.

Desiree Wooten played all 40 minutes running the point. That is both a credit to her and a reminder of how much creation the Pack still loses when Brooks is not available. The free-throw shooting remains the most fixable issue on the sheet. Moore said they are hitting around 80 percent in practice and still does not have a full answer for why it disappeared in the game. Against Seton Hall on the road, those missed free throws and the early physicality cannot both show up again.

Liberty is a good team and this will be a useful win later in the season. More important right now is that the Pack showed it can respond when the first half goes wrong. The second half was cleaner, tougher, and closer to the version of the team Moore wants. The first half was a warning. The response is the part worth carrying to Seton Hall. This group is going to be fine if it keeps finding answers the way it did after the break. The next test is whether those answers show up from the opening tip instead of at halftime.