North Carolina loses at its own game

Diamond DeShields hit a buzzer beater.

It wasn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill buzzer beater either. DeShields grabbed her own rebound after missing back-to-back threes just seconds before and launched a bank shot from the hash mark.

The crowd went wild, but on the court, DeShields had barely any reaction at all. She knew it when she threw up the shot, and she knew it now.

It didn’t matter.

The No. 6 North Carolina women’s basketball team fell to Miami 83-80 at home Sunday afternoon — UNC’s second loss to an unranked team in a row — but it didn’t have to be that way.

Sure, the Tar Heels were down 19 points at one point in the first half, but ask sophomore Xylina McDaniel. She’ll tell you that’s ordinary, all part of the game plan. She herself had 15 of her 18 points after the 20-minute mark.

“The second half is our half,” she said. “We wear teams down, and we continue to run.”

And at the start of the second period, it seemed as though UNC was right on schedule. The Tar Heels grabbed the second half early and had no intention of sharing.

After ending the first half on a 15-2 run and heading into the locker room down 42-36, UNC obviously had mustered momentum. But would it hold over to the next period?

Miami turnover, UNC basket. Miami turnover, UNC basket. Miami turnover, Miami timeout.

Short answer — yes.

Three minutes into the half and junior guard Danielle Butts followed a McDaniel three with a layup to give UNC its first lead since 14 minutes and 27 seconds were left in the first half.

“The energy from my teammates and coaches just gave me life,” McDaniel said. “We started the second half a lot better than we have been doing.”

The Tar Heels’ trademark offensive onslaught continued throughout the half as they scored 80 points for the 11th time this season, but there was one hitch — Miami was keeping up.

No matter what UNC threw up, no matter what trickery or skill the Tar Heels employed to get a basket, the Hurricanes had an answer. For almost 10 minutes, neither team scored consecutively while also managing to grab a stop on defense.

“It is (frustrating), but at the same time you have to learn how to fight through that and learn how to get stops,” McDaniel said. “It’s not going to make a difference if you’re scoring and they’re coming back and scoring again.”

What did make a difference was when — with the score tied at 71 and two minutes left on the clock — the Tar Heels stopped scoring and Miami refused to stop.

The Hurricanes quickly shut the door on UNC with nine unanswered points in 90 seconds, climbing to what proved to be an insurmountable lead.

So when DeShields put up her first shot, and her second, and even when the third shot went in, she knew it didn’t matter.

North Carolina had lost at its own game.

sports @dailytarheel.com