Injury-riddled UNC women's basketball season comes to a fitting end in Columbia

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Following its loss to No. 1-seeded South Carolina, the UNC women’s basketball team sat despondent in a circle around the locker room.

Carolina Blue uniforms stuck out in the sea of gray tracksuits. Most of the Tar Heels had not even taken the suits off since arriving in South Carolina, knowing they likely wouldn’t see the court due to inexperience or injury. Only a few had sweat on their brows. Knee braces and crutches littered the floor.

Senior guard Deja Kelly had come to terms with the essential question facing UNC in the NCAA tournament second round. How can a team win against the overall seed with such a limited bench? Answer: It can’t. 

“This is probably one of our toughest years,” Kelly said.

North Carolina fell to undefeated South Carolina, 88-41, on Sunday afternoon. During the lopsided loss, USC's bench put up 51 points. North Carolina, with its numerous season-ending injuries, lacked the tools to challenge a Gamecock squad hungry for redemption after falling short in the Final Four last year.

In the 24 hours leading up to the matchup, head coach Courtney Banghart ran practice differently for the restricted Tar Heels. 

Rather than prepare on the hardwood, North Carolina hit the film room. With a deep and physical South Carolina team lurking in its home arena, UNC rested. 

“We’ve got to save all we’ve got for game day, mentally and physically,” Banghart said. 

And what do they have? Only nine available players and three true guards. Only one available point guard out of the four they should have. So, participating in walk-throughs and watching film is, according to Banghart, “what this group has had to do.” The Tar Heels simply try to recover as best as they can from game to game.

But a team can’t always recover from this type of wound. 

Within 20 seconds of South Carolina’s first substitution — which happened halfway through the first quarter — forward Chloe Kitts grabbed her first points of the night. Then, guard MiLaysia Fulwiley found her own footing off the bench less than a minute later. Like clockwork, first-year guard Tessa Johnson followed suit and hit a 3-pointer. Spearheaded by Fulwiley’s game-high 20-point performance, the three bench players all reached double figures. 

UNC senior forward Alyssa Ustby recorded 12 points and was the sole Tar Heel to break double digits.

The Gamecocks used 10 players in total. Only six Tar Heels contributed significant minutes. 

Throughout the afternoon, Banghart continually asked herself another question: Should the Tar Heels take away the Gamecocks' game with activity, or play one-on-one? It seemed nothing could stop the bleeding. South Carolina had answers for everything.

“We kind of had to pick our battles a little bit,” Banghart said. “[With] that skeleton of our crew, you can’t play at the same pace defensively that we wanted to play at.”

North Carolina could only watch its season slip away as Fulwiley and Johnson combined for seven triples and Kitts converted four of her five looks in the post. The Tar Heels watched as the Gamecock starting five and their supporting cast broke them down easily. 

For the last part of its season, UNC has barely held on. After almost surrendering a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter against Michigan State on Friday, the Tar Heels finally met their maker.

“They were running the floor on us and we were just getting tired,” sophomore guard Indya Nivar said. “We tried our best against that. [It’s] fresh legs versus fatigue.”

With the curtains drawn on the season, a drained UNC team sat silently in the locker room reflecting on its last contest. Crutches rested on locker room doors. Few players attempted to catch their breath after being confined on the sideline. There were no tears. 

The Tar Heels accepted they could never surmount their irreparable wound. 

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