Tar Heels win despite quick play turnovers

The North Carolina women's basketball team was never in any danger of dropping its opening exhibition game against Carson-Newman.

But one look at the turnover column of the box score provides more than enough evidence that Tuesday's was UNC's first game in nearly six months.

The Tar Heels who forced the Eagles into 40 turnovers by utilizing several aggressive defensive sets gave the ball up 30 times themselves" including 16 first-half miscues.

But coach Sylvia Hatchell didn't seem too worried about it.

""We had way too many turnovers"" she said. But we'll cut that down.""

Last season" Hatchell's squad averaged 19 giveaways per game" a number that might seem high before taking into account the uncommonly high number of possessions the Tar Heels had. Hatchell said there were 140 possessions for UNC in Tuesday's game.

""It was tiring" point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid said. (Hatchell) said she wanted to go faster" and I feel like it was a lot faster.""

With a frantic pace — the Tar Heels had racked up nearly 40 points just 10 minutes into the game — and Carson-Newman employing a swarming full-court press for much of the game" North Carolina often saw the Eagles scoring uncontested baskets.

When the pace did settle down to what almost resembled a half-court offense Carson-Newman regularly harassed UNC posts with two and three defenders.

To make sure of that" Carson-Newman coach Dean Walsh instructed his players to ""Collapse! Collapse!"" if a UNC big ever had a one-on-one matchup in the post.

And who can blame him? The Tar Heels boast a roster with six players at least 6 feet" 1 inch with freshman Chay Shegog standing 6 feet 5 inches. Carson-Newman's Lindsey Eggleston at 6 feet 1 inch" is the only Eagle that stands taller than 72 inches.

""Because they were saturating like three defenders down there" I was telling them to reverse the ball and then go in Hatchell said. But we were throwing it in there" and they were collapsing.""

Encouraging for the Tar Heels is the fact that their point guards" DeGraffenreid and She'la White accounted for only five turnovers while combining for eight assists.

In her first game as a Tar Heel White committed just two turnovers in 20 minutes of action.

Never was the UNC dominance at point more evident than at the 6:32 mark of the second half when DeGraffenreid maneuvered through the entire Eagles full-court press before dishing a no-look pass to a wide-open Trinity Bursey for an easy two.

But Hatchell noted that even with DeGraffenreid out of the game" she has full confidence in White's ability to maintain possession for UNC.

""We can now take (DeGraffenreid) out" let her rest and we won't lose a beat Hatchell said. We can keep on moving" so I like that.""



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.