Defensive effort boosts women's basketball team

In a matter of 17 seconds, Stephanie Mavunga had already recovered the ball from a Coppin State guard who was a foot shorter than she was.

With stifling defense, the North Carolina women’s basketball team flustered Coppin State offensively, and never relinquished control in its 91-51 victory against the Eagles Sunday.

In the first half, Coppin State went almost nine minutes without a field goal, which helped UNC stretch the lead with a 20-2 run .

As a team, the Tar Heels held the Eagles to 30.4 percent from the field and forced 14 steals . UNC currently leads the ACC in steals at 14.5 per game and field goal percentage at 27.2 percent .

Freshman Diamond Deshields, who said her game is not usually predicated on defense, led the team with five steals.

“Here lately, I haven’t been hitting shots, and so I’ve been trying to find a way to create offensive in other ways,” Deshields said. “I’m starting to learn that when I can get in the passing lane, I’m much more athletic and I’m able to get steals and do more things in transition.”

Coach Andrew Calder praised UNC’s defensive effort, and said he believes communication has been the key thus far in the season.

“Communication is getting better and better, and I think that’s helping us defensively,” he said.

“The better your communication is, the quicker your team is. We’re already pretty athletic, and then you add that to it — it’s giving us a lot of success defensively.”

The Tar Heels forced 25 turnovers , and were able to turn Coppin State’s mistakes into offensive production with 28 points off of turnovers .

Freshman Jessica Washington, who received her first career start Sunday, said the turnovers allow the Tar Heels to run in the open court and put pressure on the opposing team’s defense.

“We’re ‘Heel Fast’, so every possession, we are trying to push the ball and kick the ball ahead and get those fast break points,” she said. “Every single possession we are trying to push the ball up court before the defense can get set.”

The Tar Heels were missing key players against Coppin State, including freshman Allisha Gray and junior

Latifah Coleman. But Calder said he had no concerns, because each player on the team knows her role defensively.

“The players that did have to substitute on the perimeter have practiced in that position,” Calder said. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a post player on our team or a guard on our team. We all go through post drills and we all go through perimeter drills. They can play inside and outside — and that’s the type of players we’re developing.”