The eleventh-ranked North Carolina women’s basketball team remains undefeated thanks to a 79-77 nail-biter victory against No. 21 Oklahoma State Wednesday evening in Carmichael Arena.

The Cowgirls have now fallen to 2-1, while North Carolina remains unscathed at 3-0.

This was Carolina’s first tough game of the season, one that Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell says the ladies will benefit from before their road game stretch against even higher-ranked opponents.

“Well I think we’re very balanced, we’ve got good leadership with the seniors, we’ve got depth,” Coach Hatchell says. “And I’m very confident so it’s good to be able to put the different (players) in there, and we’re going to get better and better with our outside shooting and learning a little bit more of when to take those shots. So we’ll get smarter as we go along.”

OSU’s highest scorer, Brittany Martin, who averaged 24.5 points per contest before the night’s game, was out early in both halves due to foul trouble. OSU Head Coach Jim Littell, who coached his squad to a 25-9 record last season, says Martin’s low minutes made a significant difference in the development of his team’s offense.

Brittany Rountree (left), Xylina McDaniel and Stephanie Mavunga (UNC Athletics)

Brittany Rountree (left), Xylina McDaniel and Stephanie Mavunga (UNC Athletics)

“She got two fouls guarding the ball at the wrong end of the court, and that was a factor in the game for us,” Coach Littell says. “She’d scored 24 in game one, 27 in game two; but she played 16 minutes tonight and it was basically because of silly fouls. We got what we deserved on that. But we’ve got a long way to go, we lost a couple really good players last year and we’re trying to find our way right now of how we need to play. It was better tonight but we’re disappointed because we felt like we had a chance to win the game.”

The night started out a lot like any other UNC game this season, as reigning leading scorer Allisha Gray came out with a hot hand, and scored the first 8 points of the match. A bucket by sophomore Stephanie Mavunga started off Carolina’s early 10-0 run.

Minutes later, that lead was cut, and OSU’s Brittany Atkins came back with a big three-point shot to tie the game back up at 15 with just under 13 minutes left in the half. The Cowgirls took their first lead of the game that next possession with a strong drive to the basket by senior Lashawn Jones, who finished the night with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

UNC battled back to give themselves more breathing room with 3 minutes to play, creating a nine-point lead off of a beautiful in-bounds play from Gray to senior Danielle Butts, with an assist back down to Gray who finished with a lay-up on the baseline. Consecutive three’s by Oklahoma native Jessica Washington and an and-1 score by Butts closed the half with the Tar Heels on top at 40-29. OSU guard Roshunda Johnson dominated the second half and kept the Tar Heels from running away with the lead, shooting 3 for 4 from behind the arc and 6-10 from the field to finish with 21 points.

Johnson’s strong drive to the basket and a full court pass to Jones in the post brought OSU within 6 points of Carolina at 50-44 and caused UNC’s Hall of Fame coach to call a timeout. UNC senior Brittany Rountree emerged from that break with her first and only made three-pointer of the game, a depressing statistic after her 17-point performance scoring four three-pointers against UCLA Sunday.

Three consecutive baskets by the Cowgirls gave them their first lead since 12:47 of the first half at 65-63, with 5:40 left to play. Junior Xylina McDaniel stole the ball and traveled coast to coast to score. Mavunga then put the Heels back on top with an and-1 lay-up. She missed the extra point, which was rebounded by Allisha Gray and sent cross-court to Rountree for a field goal.

With 1:14 left to play, Gray fouled OSU’s Martin who was sent to the free throw line and made both of her shots to cut the Heels’ lead to 77-74. After breaking OSU’s press, Mavunga went up for lay-up and was called for an offensive foul with one minute left to play, much to the joy of Oklahoma State’s bench. Another big 3 by Johnson tied the game at 77 points.

Senior Latifah Coleman dished a pass to Stephanie Mavunga for the last basket of the game with 30 seconds left. Oklahoma State made one last attempt to extend the game with a “Hail Mary” pass inbounds, but it was stolen out of the air by Gray to seal the Tar Heels’ victory.

Five Tar Heels scored in double figures, as Stephanie Mavunga and Xylina McDaniel collected double-doubles and Allisha Gray led all scorers with 22 points.

Carolina heads west to begin a string of road games for the next month, beginning with Oregon Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on the Pac-12 Network.

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