Diamond DeShields scorches Spartans in women's basketball win

Diamond DeShields sat on the North Carolina bench, watching. With 15 minutes left in the NCAA Tournament second-round game, her Tar Heels were leading Michigan State by 18 points .

The freshman turned away from the game and pressed an ice pack against her neck. She let out a sigh of relief.

“I was hot!” DeShields said. “I was burning up.”

That might have been the understatement of the century. In No. 4 seed UNC’s scorching of No. 5 seed Michigan State 62-53, DeShields recorded her first career double-double: 24 points, 12 rebounds.

There was something noticeably different in DeShields Tuesday, and assistant coach Ivory Latta saw it from the start. During warmups, she turned to associate head coach Andrew Calder .

“Hey, she’s got a bounce,” Latta said. “She’s going to definitely have a good game.”

Latta could not have been more right. But what sprung that bounce for DeShields?

“A lot of things probably affect Diamond,” Latta said. “She gets out there, and she plays with her heart and with a lot of passion. When she’s going like that, it’s really hard to stop her.”

Maybe DeShields thought she had something to prove after UNC’s last game. Just 48 hours before, UNC had survived an all-too-likely upset at the hands of Tennessee Martin where DeShields was held to three field goals .

“I think UT Martin poked the beehive there,” said MSU coach Suzy Merchant . “And we got a swarming bunch of bees coming at us early. The biggest one in the bunch was Diamond DeShields.”

DeShields agreed. UNC’s first game stung.

“Well it hurt my pride a little bit,” she said. “With what’s at stake this season, I knew I couldn’t do that anymore.”

So she didn’t.

Maybe it was a lethal dose of adrenaline and rage. Minutes into the game, DeShields got tangled with a MSU player, hit the ground and had another Spartan land on her head. She lay, writhing in pain on the ground for a few seconds, then, with the help of trainers, limped to the locker room.

She returned four minutes later, head down as she beckoned toward the crowd and received a standing ovation.

She subbed back into the game with eight minutes left in the half. UNC was up by six points. The next time DeShields left the court, UNC led by 18. She had 22 points .

Twice more, DeShields hit the deck. Once on a fast break and another slamming into the scorer’s table after a tussle for a loose ball. Each time she popped up, her stare as cold as her game was hot.

Maybe it was a sense of pride. As MSU and UNC warmed up an hour before tipoff, the Spartan players were adamant about how they owned the court, North Carolina’s court. The Spartans had just come off of a 30-point blowout win, and they were expecting the same against a UNC team that had barely come out with a two-point win.

“We got wind of some things that were said, and that fired us up a lot,” DeShields said. “But all words that were said were settled on the court.”

DeShields smiled.

“I would just suggest not to make comments about our team before a game. It’d be wise not to do that.”

sports@dailytarheel.com