For North Carolina State women's basketball coach Wes Moore, Friday night's game at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was a sweet homecoming.
For first-year UTC coach Katie Burrows and the Mocs, it was yet another bump in a very rough stretch of the season.
Freshman Elissa Cunane scored 19 points as the 10th-ranked Wolfpack started fast and cruised to a 78-58 victory in Moore's return to UTC, where he coached from 1998 to 2013.
"It's great to be back in Chattanooga," Moore said. "I love this university, I love this city and I love the people most of all.
"I've been in here a lot of times when the visiting team went home with their tail between their legs, so I know how tough it is to get a win here."
N.C. State led 9-0 before the Mocs (4-9) got on the board with a Brooke Burns 3-pointer. Friday's setback was the Mocs' seventh consecutive loss since beating Saint Louis on Nov. 24
"Effort-wise, I think we did the best we could," said Burns, who finished with seven points. "But we have to make small adjustments like boxing out every single time. We give effort every single play, but mentally we have to do the detail things every single time."
The Wolfpack used their size advantage to do a lot of damage with 44 points in the paint.
Cunane was 7-for-9 from the field to help the Wolfpack improve to 12-0, the second-best start in program history and the 900th victory overall.
N.C. State junior Aislinn Konig was 2-for-5 from 3-point range and has made a 3-pointer in 45 consecutive games dating back to Nov. 15, 2017. Her streak is the second-longest in the nation behind Presley Hudson of Central Michigan, which also defeated UTC this season.
Cunane was third on the team in scoring with 13 points per game coming into Friday's contest despite not starting in any of the Wolfpack's games this season.
"I think it's a role I have taken on as the season has gone on," she said. "It's just something I can do for my team. My coaches told me to impact the game, and that's what I'm doing."
Grace Hunter added 17 points for N.C. State, and Kiara Leslie had 12.
Arianne Whitaker led UTC with 13 points, and Rochelle Lee had 11. The Mocs shot 38.2 percent from the field and were outrebounded 45-23, including allowing N.C. State to get 17 on the offensive end.
"It was tough, but it's nothing we don't work on every day," Lee said of the inside play against the Wolfpack. "You just have to be strong down there, stay low and move your feet. But they were pretty good in the paint."
Seven UTC 3s from six players kept the game from being even more lopsided, and only three of the Mocs' 11 turnovers were committed in the second half.
"I was not displeased with our effort," Burrows said. "I felt like my girls came out with the right mindset, but putting the ball in the hole is our issue. We're not scoring right out of the gate, and against a team like this you can't do that."
UTC was ranked No. 11 in the nation in made free throws entering Friday's game and went 9-for-9 from the line against the Wolfpack.
This was the second meeting between the two progams. N.C. State won 80-67 on Dec. 31, 1977, also in Chattanooga.
The Mocs will pause for Christmas before traveling to New York to end 2018 and wrap up their nonconference slate with two games at the Fordham Holiday Classic in the Bronx. They will open that event Dec. 29 against Middle Tennessee State followed by a matchup with either Fordham or Maine on Dec. 30.
During his 15 years at UTC, Moore's teams went 358-113 and made nine NCAA tournament appearances. Burrows played for him from 2000 to 2004, including as a member of the team that defeated Rutgers in the first round of the 2004 NCAA tournament.
She later worked as an assistant coach for Moore and Jim Foster before taking over as head coach in May after Foster's retirement - and after Friday's game had been scheduled.
"I don't know if I would have (scheduled the game) if I had known she was going to be the head coach," Moore said as he and she prepared to head to a reception attended by several of his former UTC players.
"As much as I like Jim Foster, it's a little bit tougher when it's the first kid you recruited to UTC and was a great player for you and a great assistant for you. That's a little bit tougher playing against that."
Contact Jim Tanner at JFTanner@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JFTanner.