'She shattered it': Alyssa Ustby records first triple-double in UNC women's basketball history

As Alyssa Ustby exited the game in the third quarter, head coach Courtney Banghart stopped the forward at the scorer's table.

From midcourt, Banghart was the first to congratulate Ustby on cementing Tar Heel history. She reminded the senior of all the greats' jerseys that hung in the rafters of Carmichael Arena, before telling Ustby that she was now one of them.

In North Carolina’s 75-51 victory over No. 25 Syracuse, Ustby became the first UNC women’s basketball player to record a triple-double, doing so in only three quarters of play. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Minnesota native had sealed her monumental box score with 16 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists.

“It’s not just a triple-double,” Banghart said. “She shattered it.”

At the end of the first quarter, all of Carmichael Arena was on triple-double watch. Ustby tallied five assists and four rebounds through her first seven minutes of action — only one dime shy of her career-high. 

It was junior forward Maria Gakdeng whom Ustby looked to on nearly every trip down the court. Ustby would stretch the floor from either the nail or elbow, before dumping pass after pass to Gakdeng, who was stationed in the post.

The pair connected on seven different occasions in the first half, as Ustby picked apart Syracuse’s 1-3-1 zone to notch nine assists by halftime.

Gakdeng said playing against Ustby in practice was the driving force behind their chemistry in big games. 

“Iron sharpens iron,” Gakdeng said. “Just making sure that we are going hard during practice, during our positional workouts, [and] giving each other our best.”

Yet on a night where her ability to move the rock took center stage, Ustby didn’t falter in her pursuit of the offensive glass. The team leader in offensive rebounds grabbed five Tar Heel misses, contributing to UNC’s 14 second-chance points. 

Ustby has always been credited for her high motor and willingness to make extra effort plays, and in a physical game against the Orange, the forward yet again found ways to come up with big rebounds.

“[Syracuse] had a lot of post players that were super aggressive, so that made my job pretty challenging,” Ustby said. “But I just had to meet the physicality and fight for those boards.”

Ustby’s recent breakout in almost every facet of her game tracks back to a conversation she had with Banghart behind closed doors. Following the team’s loss to UConn earlier this season, the head coach challenged her captain to impact big games — instead of reacting to them.

Adhering to her advice, Ustby immediately got into the weight room with a renewed mindset ahead of ACC play. She began encouraging the entire locker room to focus on taking each day as its own unique opportunity. 

“Going into the game, it’s just another day at the office,” Ustby said. “We’re clocking in ready to go and ready to fight as soon as the tip is going up.”

A quick glance at Ustby's recent stats have exemplified the effects of this mental adjustment — in UNC's ACC opener against Clemson on Sunday, the senior forward notched a 21-point double-double.

And being the coach that recruited Ustby to Chapel Hill, no one is more excited about her recent success than Banghart. 

“To know that she’s the only one who’s gotten a triple-double here, with who she is, how she plays, how she plays hard and she’s selfless," Banghart said, "she should make all you Tar Heel fans proud because she does things the right way."

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