UNC women's basketball exercises depth in win over Western Carolina

When asked how it felt to have Teonni Key back on the court, head coach Courtney Banghart only had one reaction: “Hallelujah.”

Friday marked the redshirt sophomore forward's first game this season. But more than that, it represented what the injury-riddled Tar Heels have been trying to achieve for the past few games: finally displaying their depth.

In UNC women's basketball's 96-36 win over Western Carolina, the 11 Tar Heels saw the floor, including Key and sophomore guard Paulina Paris, who missed the previous two games due to injury. North Carolina was able to amp up its speed and aggression while also recording a season-best 51.9 field goal percentage.

“Hard to do that when you’re playing with so few guys,” Banghart said. 

The last time UNC played 11 Tar Heels in a game was against Hampton on Nov. 15 — exactly a month ago. Since then, North Carolina's depth has dwindled due to a multitude of players being put on day-to-day rest or injury protocol. Less than a week ago, the Tar Heels left Connecticut following a 76-64 loss to No. 17 UConn, a game in which just seven Tar Heels saw game action. Four of them logged at least 34 minutes.

As Key subbed in during the first quarter on Friday, junior center Maria Gakdeng found her seat on the bench. After seeing 36 minutes of action against UConn, Gakdeng was able to rest by playing only 18 against Western Carolina.

“No part of her was like, 'I just can’t wait to play 38 minutes again,' right?” Banghart said. “These guys don’t want to.”

Not only do the Tar Heels not want to play this much, but they also weren’t built to. Against UConn, Banghart recalls stretches of the game where her players looked up at her with a look she could only describe as 'Holy crap coach, I'm so tired."

“It wasn’t that Alyssa [Ustby] wasn’t fighting," Banghart said of the UConn game. "It was that her legs were heavy and she was tired. And it’s just like, I need you. You got to keep going.”

With Key and Paris playing on Friday, Ustby, senior guard Deja Kelly and graduate guard Lexi Donarski recorded at least 10 more minutes of rest than they did in the UConn game. As Banghart has been anticipating all season, without key players such as Gakdeng, Kelly and Donarski, the Tar Heels still managed to do fine.

Arguably, more than fine. 

Key's 10 rebounds and Paris' 16 points were a career-high and season-high, respectively. Ustby dropped 23 points, which tied her career-high in 24 minutes.

With a stronger lineup, Banghart cannot help but imagine what the game against UConn would have looked like now. Still, she sees this as a challenge for her players who feel like they missed an opportunity to beat a dynasty program and achieve their first ranked win.

“I don’t envision that will be an opportunity they will give away going forward without a fight,” she said. “Again, it’s easier to fight when you got more guys, right?”

With her new teammates finding their stride as ACC play approaches, Ustby could only echo her coach's words. She said the team has to be more gritty and meet the challenge rather than letting the challenge come to them.

“I think that’s a little bit of what happened playing against UConn," she said.

Paris initially struggled to verbalize her anticipation for the last scheduled game of non-conference play — a matchup against Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational on Dec. 19.

However, she quickly found one simple mantra that describes UNC's desire to showcase what injury and fatigue has been hiding for so long: its true depth.

“We have to redeem ourselves,” she said, later adding, “We just have to win and that’s pretty much it.”

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