UNC secures narrow victory

When players from Charleston Southern arrive at practice, they invoke some familiar names.

“When our players come in, they talk about, I’m (Cetera) DeGraffenreid. I’m (Chay) Shegog,” CSU coach Julie Goodenough said. “These are the players they emulate in practice.”

Still, in Chapel Hill, the underdogs managed to conjure something their heroes had never seen.

In a narrow 76-67 UNC win, CSU shot 17-48 from beyond the arc. Both figures are record highs for a North Carolina opponent.

At times, it appeared that CSU might show No. 4 UNC something else it has not seen this season — a loss.

When asked the positives of the game, UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell paused.

“That we won,” she joked.

“I think we learned a lot. Their style is very different than us, and it will help us since we had to make adjustments.”

Hatchell said that the team anticipated the Buccaneers’ international style drive-and-kick offense.

That meant that the 7-0 Tar Heels were forced to make many unprecedented adjustments — like scrapping help-side defense and focusing on containing players with strict man-to-man.

“You can’t play as much weak side, and you can’t help on penetration,” Hatchell said. “But we hadn’t played a team like this, so it was good for us.”

In the second half, the Tar Heels also tried employing a zone defense to help contain the three-point barrage. It barely curbed it.

The Buccaneers finished the second half shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.

Offensively, UNC sank just one shot from the perimeter but still finished 50 percent from the field.

Given North Carolina’s size advantage, Hatchell said the biggest disappointment was UNC’s meager 46-43 rebounding margin.

“I told them if they got outrebounded, we were going to have rebounding practice at 6 o’clock in the morning,” Hatchell said.

After entering halftime with a 10-point lead, the Tar Heels adjusted on both ends of the floor and subsequently regained its rebounding edge.

Forward Laura Broomfield said much of the team’s rebounding woes were self-inflicted.

“A lot of times we were taking it from each other,” she said. “Our heart and our intensity was there. We just have to learn not to take it from each other.”

Offensively, UNC returned to feeding the ball in the post, a campaign that helped UNC string together a 19-7 run and open its largest 22-point lead of the game.

The Tar Heels managed to stave off late rallies by the Buccaneers that diminished the lead to nine.

When Hatchell was asked whether the team would be rebounding at dawn, she smiled.

“They won that by three so I’ll keep my word,” Hatchell said. “As much as I love rebounding practice at six in the morning, I’ll keep my word.

“1:30. We’ll do it then.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.