UNC women's basketball tops Seminoles

During the second half of its 65-61 win against Florida State, the North Carolina women’s basketball team realized that its offensive performance might depend on something else — picking up its defensive intensity.

The No. 12 Tar Heels trailed 36-29 at the end of the first period thanks to some electric 3-point shooting from the No. 17 Seminoles and a fairly pedestrian offensive showing for UNC.

“Shooting for us in the first half wasn’t the best,” said freshman guard Diamond DeShields. “The shooting for Florida State in the first half was incredible.”

Florida State made five of its 11 3-point attempts while the UNC struggled inside and outside of the 3-point line. UNC shot 31.3 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3-point range.

DeShields said the team needed to pick up its energy on the defensive end before they could worry about its own shooting.

“We just had to play defense,” DeShields said. “Start getting aggressive on their shooters and keep our hands up on their drives.

With the added defensive intensity — especially from sophomore forward Xylina McDaniel and freshman forward Stephanie Mavunga — UNC was able to slow down the Seminoles and start watching its own shots fall.

“You just gather yourself and come together as a team,” McDaniel said. “Then our defense was incredible, which causes us to do better on the offensive end.

“With us getting big rebounds, getting big stops, it just motivated us and got us hyped for the offensive end.”

Mavunga was effective down low. She had five blocks on the afternoon to go along with 13 points and 11 rebounds .

“She was very critical,” DeShields said. “It was a silent double-double. Honestly, I didn’t even know it. But it shows out on the floor when she’s getting rebounds and she’s able to run the floor.”

Once UNC started having more success on defense, DeShields settled in on the other end of the court and began to make shot after shot. She finished the game with 25 points to lead both teams, and sank four of her six 3-point attempts to help spread the floor for her teammates .

“If she didn’t play the way she did today we most likely wouldn’t have won the game,” McDaniel said. “Diamond shot extremely well tonight. She took good shots, she created good plays for herself, and when they were focused on her then it gave other people a chance to score.”

DeShields said after the game that this was the first time since coming to college that she has felt truly comfortable on the court.

“I finally felt like myself,” she said. “Some people in past games think I’ve been playing incredibly, butthat’s not even all I have.

“I’m starting to come into full form, and I think it really started down here in Tallahassee.”

sports@dailytarheel.com