No. 24 UNC women's basketball defeats Oklahoma, 61-52, in Jumpman Invitational

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – No. 24 North Carolina women’s basketball (8-4, 0-0 ACC) ran Oklahoma (6-4, 0-0 Big 12) off the court, winning 61-52 after outscoring the Sooners 25-16 in the second half Tuesday night at the Jumpman Invitational at the Spectrum Center. The win over the Sooners was UNC’s first win over a Power 5 opponent this season.

Senior guard Deja Kelly and senior forward Alyssa Ustby powered the Tar Heels to a win by scoring 21 and 15 points, respectively, including 31 of North Carolina’s 36 first-half points.

“I think the turning point was just reminding each other what our scout is about,” Ustby said. “And just locking into personnel, communicating on offense and defense, and just getting the looks that we want and just buying into that through the adversity that we started to face as the game started.”

Oklahoma started the game by scoring the first seven points before Ustby gave North Carolina its first points of the game. Following this, the game became a back-and-forth affair with Oklahoma able to largely hold North Carolina in check, ending the quarter with a 23-16 lead. The quarter itself was a sloppy one with the teams combining for 11 turnovers, including North Carolina registering four of its six turnovers in nearly two minutes.

The Tar Heels started the second quarter strong, getting out to an 8-2 run to bring Oklahoma’s lead to just one point, with Ustby scoring six of UNC’s eight points. While North Carolina slowed down Oklahoma’s offense to whittle down the Sooners’ lead, UNC allowed Oklahoma to dominate them on the offensive boards and get easy putback points. Before the under-5 timeout, the Tar Heels allowed four Oklahoma offensive rebounds giving the Sooners the chance to bring their lead back up to four.

Facing this pressure, North Carolina responded for the rest of the quarter, tying the game for the first time since the opening tip and sending the game tied at halftime, 36-36. The Tar Heels held Oklahoma to 3-for-10 shooting from the field after the under-5 timeout. Head coach Courtney Banghart and her team relied on Kelly and Ustby to bring them back into the game, with the duo scoring every point in the second quarter except two, going into halftime with 18 and 13 points, respectively.

“It was real talk about how our best players have to play really well and that’s exactly what (Kelly and Ustby) did,” Banghart said. “Alyssa played really, really well and Deja was throwing up at media timeouts.”

To begin the second half, the Tar Heels replicated the Sooners’ start to the game, going on a 7-0 run. During the run, North Carolina shot 3-for-4 while Oklahoma couldn’t buy a shot, missing all four of its attempts. Following this, both teams went on a nearly three-minute scoring lull before Kelly and graduate guard Lexi Donarski broke the drought, scoring a layup and knocking down a three to extend North Carolina’s lead to 12 points, respectively, all in 26 seconds. While North Carolina continued to add to its lead, ending the third quarter with a 52-40 lead, Oklahoma continued its struggles shooting the ball finishing the quarter shooting 2-for-19, missing its first 12 shots.

“You want the right guys to take the wrong shots,” Banghart said. “You make guys look really open that are shot-willing so that they might shoot it and that’s what they kept doing which was amazing.”

The fourth quarter featured miserable shooting from both sides going into the media timeout with the Tar Heels shooting 1-for-9 while the Sooners shot 1-for-8 from the field. Nevertheless, North Carolina’s offensive outburst in the third quarter was enough to keep the Sooners from coming back. The win on Tuesday gave the Tar Heels their first win in the Jordan Invitational following last year’s loss to Michigan.

North Carolina returns to Chapel Hill on December 31 when it hosts Clemson at noon.

@thenoahmonroe

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