Volatile defense traps foes

When asked to categorize the North Carolina women’s basketball team’s defense, Coach Sylvia Hatchell smirked and thought for quite some time.

“It’s interesting through the years how everybody has called our defense different things,” Hatchell said.

The Tar Heels seemed to play a 1-3-1 defense through most of the first half in their rout of Coppin State. At times, they switched to a 2-2-1 defense. But UNC’s trap was also in full effect.

“We actually ran about four different defenses in that first half,” Hatchell said. “They all had traps in them, but you never know when they’re going to come. That sort of keeps the other team off guard.”

Coppin State let UNC’s trap-style defense get the better of them in the first half and shot only 30 percent.

“Our trap defense didn’t let them set up their offense, so we kept doing it, and they kept making turnovers,” said UNC’s Ivory Latta.

The Lady Eagles were forced to hurl the ball over Tar Heel defenders, which resulted in many of their 17 first-half turnovers.

“We let the game get away from us a little bit, and they played their half-court press,” said Coppin State coach Derek Brown. “With their size, it was hard on our guards once they got trapped to get the ball over them.”

Eagles senior guard Denita Plain struggled with the trap defense in the first half, scoring just two points off free throws.

“Once they played us man to man, we’ve seen that all year long, so we started attacking them,” she said.

That halftime defensive switch led to only a 43-41 second-half tally in UNC’s favor, which pleased Brown.

“(I) basically told them to dribble the ball through it,” Brown said of his team’s adjustments. “We gave it too much respect in the first half. We sort of waited for the trap to come on us.”

But Hatchell eased off the trap defense as more bench players saw time on the court.

“I wanted the post players to have to play some post defense because I wasn’t real pleased how they ended the first half,” Hatchell said.

Hatchell used the rout as an opportunity to improve the defense and continue its ever-changing style of play.

“We just tried a little bit of everything to see how things would end up,” Hatchell said.

As UNC continues in the NCAA tournament, it seems the only type of defense it opponents can expect is anything and everything.

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.