Indya Nivar's fourth quarter surge lifts Tar Heels to key road win at Notre Dame

With under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Indya Nivar looked at the North Carolina bench. After scoring a clutch left-handed layup, the sophomore guard said she looked at her teammates for one reason: to celebrate. 

Although this reaction was in part due to the new three-point lead the Tar Heels took late in the game, the look meant much more to Nivar. Her glance toward her teammates was a silent message that she wanted to share with the people who have supported her all season.

After struggling to find her place in a new setting and team — averaging around 6.5 points per game — Nivar was finally back.

On Sunday night, Nivar's team-high 16 points off the bench lifted the unranked UNC women's basketball team to a 61-57 upset over No. 16 Notre Dame. The North Carolina native and Stanford transfer erupted for 10 of the Tar Heels' 16 fourth-quarter points in UNC's first true road game of the season — helping the program earn its first ever win in Purcell Pavilion. 

However, in the first 15 seconds of the fourth quarter, Nivar walked to the half-court line and clapped her hands in frustration. 

In an effort to turn an early play into a steal, the guard ran into Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and picked up her fourth foul. After showing her anger for the misread that put her in deeper foul trouble, Nivar high-fived her teammates and focused in once again. A little over a minute later, she drove to the basket — without hesitation — while being crowded by the Fighting Irish. 

While Nivar describes this patient playing style as just “being a little bit smarter” — not reaching in for the ball or going too hard for rebounds, for example — she refused to be unassertive late in the game even with the potential of fouling out. 

After a jumper in the paint, the guard made another layup. This time, she drew the foul with it: and-1. By the time the Fighting Irish managed to end a four-minute drought, Nivar had already scored North Carolina's first seven points of the fourth quarter to keep the Tar Heels in the game without senior guard, leading scorer and captain Deja Kelly on the floor.

For head coach Courtney Banghart, Nivar’s success comes from one thing — she has “leaned in.” 

A cross-country transition — even if it means coming home for players like Nivar, an Apex native — is rarely easy. Oftentimes, it requires a complete change of mindset, for which Banghart said not everyone is equipped.

“It’s an under-told story how transferring is a disruption to your own journey at times,” Banghart said.

For Nivar, going all in comes with ownership. With a supportive team and coach behind her, she challenges herself to go to the gym more, meet with Banghart one-on-one and work with her positioning coach. Over the last couple of weeks, this has been Nivar’s tried-and-true script. 

“I need to stack days repetitively to get where I want to be,” she said. 

And this adherence to completely “leaning in” is evident. Even though the guard had four fouls on Sunday, she found backdoor cuts and open lanes against an elite Notre Dame squad with a newfound confidence.

With Nivar spearheading the fourth quarter, graduate guard Lexi Donarski — another transfer who has “leaned in” according to Banghart — believes the Tar Heels were able to strike in the last moments to pull off a win due to their energy and adaptability.

“It was our effort,” Donarski, the Iowa State transfer, said. “We had five people on the floor that really bought into that.”

All reasons stem from the team-wide attitude that Banghart has tried to curate this season. It's an attitude most recently exemplified by Nivar on Sunday — a will to perform and contribute everything to the team.  

However, after the game, all Nivar could do was smile following her long-overdue performance.

“It’s been a while,” Nivar said. “I’m glad to be making clutch plays at the end of the game like that.”

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@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com