If Carolina fans ever needed a palate-cleansing performance, the No. 24 UNC women’s basketball team delivered it in Carmichael Arena Sunday afternoon.
The Tar Heels put together one of their most complete showings of the season against visiting Miami. A dominant opening to the game removed any doubt about the outcome within minutes: Carolina led 28-2 after the first quarter.
Yes, you read that right.
The 28 points scored were the second-highest total in a quarter this season for the Tar Heels against an ACC opponent, and the two points allowed were a season-low against anyone. Carolina didn’t let off the gas from there, and breezed past the Hurricanes for an 85-38 win. The 47-point margin is the team’s largest in an ACC win since 2007.
That's a final from Carmichael ⤵️#GoHeels x #InPursuit pic.twitter.com/JYKnsElmBq
— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) February 6, 2022
The Tar Heels are now 18-4 overall and 8-4 in ACC play this season. The 18 regular season wins are already the best in Courtney Banghart’s three seasons as head coach, and the most since the 2014-15 season.
“I think we just had a really good mentality going into this game,” said sophomore guard Deja Kelly. “They beat us twice last year, which we weren’t OK with… We were ready to throw the first punch, and we did that.”
Including Kelly, all of UNC’s starters scored in the first quarter explosion, with forward Anya Poole leading the way with 10. Poole hadn’t reached 10 points in a game since January 9, yet needed only 10 minutes to do so on Sunday.
“When our players are hot, we look for them,” said sophomore guard Kennedy Todd-Williams. “And I thought Anya did a really good job crashing, getting her own rebounds and just putting it back up. So it helped us a lot [to] get that spark, and I don’t think Miami was ready for that.”
When the first quarter turned to the second, Poole passed the scoring mantle to Kelly, who broke out of her recent slump with authority, scoring 16 points in the period and hitting four three-pointers. Kelly hadn’t scored 16 points in a game since January 20, and her four threes were her most since January 16. She finished with 18 on the game.
“It felt really good to see the ball finally go in the basket,” Kelly said. “I wasn’t too worried. I just stayed in the gym. I knew that my shot would fall eventually.”
As it turned out, Kelly’s head coach wasn’t too worried, either.
“I don’t worry about Deja’s ability to make shots,” said Banghart. “It was great that so many people were able to have her back when she didn’t shoot well, and she’ll have their back in other moments.”
In addition to Kelly and Poole, two other Carolina starters finished in double figures: Alyssa Utsby with 11 points and Todd-Williams with a career-high 16. Beginning with a January 16 loss at Notre Dame, Todd-Williams has been remarkably consistent on offense, scoring in double figures in seven straight games. The last four games of that stretch have seen her score 15, 15, 14 and 16 points. She is now UNC’s third-leading scorer this season, trailing only Kelly and Ustby.
Banghart sees no limit to her sophomore combo guard’s potential.
“The best thing about Kennedy Todd-Williams is there literally is no peak,” she said. “I told her that. I think she thinks I’m crazy. The kid just keeps getting better and better, and she puts the work in.”
Perhaps the same could be said of Banghart’s team as a whole. At 8-4 in conference play, UNC remains in a tight race with Virginia Tech for fifth-place in the ACC and the top single bye in the ACC Tournament. A place in the top four and a double-bye is not completely out of the picture, though the Tar Heels would need help to secure that spot.
Still, the team’s standing as a top-half side in a rough-and-tumble ACC in 2022 is quite satisfying for fans of a program that was in relative disarray before Banghart’s hiring. Six regular season games remain for Carolina, and the team could very well reach 20 wins in a season for the first time in seven years. But in a conference which could send eight teams to the NCAA Tournament, there are no guarantees.
“We know our margin of error is small in this league,” Banghart said. “There’s too many good teams… every single game matters. That was number eight, and we’re gonna go for number nine on Thursday [at home against Pittsburgh]. And we’ve just gotta stack as many of them as we can.”
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
