UNC women's basketball falls to Pittsburgh Panthers

The North Carolina women’s basketball team is no stranger to close encounters. In eight games this season, the halftime score has been within 10 points. Eight times, the team has prevailed.

But Thursday, the Pittsburgh Panthers rode their own momentum to close out the comback-minded Tar Heels.

After trailing by 10 at the break, No. 8 UNC allowed a 21-7 run and never recovered, as the Panthers (11-4, 1-1 ACC) claimed an 84-59 home victory, their first win over a ranked opponent in nearly four years.

“We’ve had some close scores at halftime but we’ve played really good in the second half all year,” said Coach Sylvia Hatchell, whose team trailed by double digits the entire second half. “Once we got it to 11, I thought, ‘OK, we’re gonna make a run here and pull this out.’”

But after getting within striking distance, the Tar Heels (14-2, 1-1 ACC) simply couldn’t make a shot, going without a made field goal for the final seven minutes.

“We just couldn’t score,” said Hatchell, after the team finished just over 30 percent from the field. “We took enough shots that we should have been able to do better than we did.”

Forward Stephanie Mavunga — who was honored as the ACC Player of the Week on Monday — finished with just 12 points and 4 rebounds on 4-of-12 shooting.

“She usually finishes really well around the basket,” Hatchell said. “Stephanie had some really good looks and some just easy things around the basket that didn’t go in.”

North Carolina’s lone bright spot was guard Allisha Gray, who led the team with 19 points and accounted for a third of the team’s rebounds.

But even her fifth double-double of the year wasn’t enough to save the Tar Heels from their rebounding woes.

“Rebounding was really major,” said Hatchell, referring to the Panthers’ plus-12 rebounding margin. “I was really upset that we didn’t rebound with them like we should have. Allisha had 14, but nobody else really showed any presence on the boards.”

UNC played its first road game without forward Xylina McDaniel, who is out indefinitely with a lower leg injury.

And without McDaniel, the team’s third-leading rebounder before the injury, UNC was hurt by much more than her absence on the glass.

“Xylina’s not out there, and more than anything else she’s a beast. I think her mentality we miss out there,” Hatchell said. “I just didn’t think we played as hard as we needed to. Xylina would have made a difference there, I’m sure.”

Despite the poor showing, she is confident some early-morning motivation can rectify her team’s lack of effort.

“We’re gonna start at 6:00 in the morning, probably as soon as we get back,” Hatchell said. “We’ll have a little better effort and mentality on Sunday afternoon.”

sports@dailytarheel.com