The North Carolina women's basketball team cruised to an easy 90-61 season-opening victory over Radford, behind a team-high 19 points from first-year guard Deja Kelly.
What happened?
UNC started off strong, pulling out to a 12-5 lead behind a couple of buckets inside from senior center Janelle Bailey and a pair of 3-pointers from graduate transfer Petra Holešínská. The Tar Heels would push the lead to 28-12 by the end of the first quarter behind a balanced attack, with six different players scoring in the opening period.
North Carolina struggled offensively at the start of the second quarter, scoring only eight points in the opening five minutes. While still firmly in control of the game, a blown defensive assignment led head coach Courtney Banghart to call a timeout with under four minutes left. The Tar Heels stayed in a 2-3 zone for most of the first half — and gave up a number of corner 3s — but Radford was unable to make them pay, shooting just 30.8 percent, making 4-13 attempts.
The Highlanders came out firing at the start of the second half, going on a 14-4 run in the third quarter to cut the North Carolina lead down to 55-45. The Tar Heels were able to find their offensive though, and pushed the lead back up to 20 after a last-second shot from Anya Poole made the score 67-47 at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was a mere formality, as the Tar Heels extended the lead to 29, pounding Radford inside with its post players and offensive rebounding to come out with an 90-61 victory.
Who stood out?
Kelly and Holešínská had impressive offensive performances for their first game in Carolina Blue. Kelly led the team in scoring with 19 points on 7-15 shooting, to go along with three assists. Holešínská proved her reputation as a shooter by hitting four threes on eight attempts.
First-year guar Alyssa Utsby had a surprising performance off the bench with a nearly-perfect shooting performance, going 6-7 from the field for 12 points, making her the third-highest scorer for the Tar Heels, to go along with six rebounds, three assists, two steal and a block.
