Quiet 4th Quarter Dooms UNC Women's Basketball in ACC Quarterfinal Loss

Carolina scored only four points in the fourth quarter of its ACC quarterfinal loss to Duke Friday night in Greensboro. The Tar Heels had led by as many as nine in the third quarter and entered the final period with a two-point lead, but could not hold it amid the extended dry spell as the Blue Devils won, 44-40. The game tied the all-time low for total points scored in an ACC Tournament game.

“I like a lot of the looks that we had, and we just weren’t able to finish them,” head coach Courtney Banghart said afterward. “Two really good teams, and a great basketball game today, and you never want to be the one that loses, but somehow it’s not really fair someone has got to lose these games.

The Tar Heels trailed after a quarter but led for nearly all of the second and third periods. Carolina’s most successful quarter was the second, when it outscored the Blue Devils 16-10 thanks to eight points from junior guard Deja Kelly. Kelly ended the night as Carolina’s leading scorer with 11 points, but shot just 4-22 from the floor in her worst shooting performance of the season. No other Tar Heel finished in double figures.

As a team, Carolina shot just 24.2 percent from the floor, its worst mark of the season thus far. The Tar Heels were also dominated on the glass, losing the rebounding battle 47-31. Duke missed 34 shots on the day, but grabbed 15 offensive rebounds and converted that into nine second-chance points. Despite that, Banghart pinned the loss more on Carolina’s missed shots — all 37 of them — than the rebounding disparity.

“We took 12 more shots,” she said. “Usually if you take 12 more shots, you win that game.”

Now, the Tar Heels will wait more than a week until the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed on Sunday, March 12. Carolina is hovering around the border between a No. 4 and No. 5 seed, and thus is unsure of whether it will definitively host postseason games in Carmichael Arena for the first time since 2015.

“I’m pretty biased, but I’m also pretty analytical,” said Banghart. “When you look at the numbers and you look at the quality wins and you look at top-25 wins and you look at bad losses, we don’t have any of those. Whatever your metric is, it seems pretty promising. Plus, Chapel Hill is a really cool place to be.”

Needless to say, both the men’s and women’s teams will be watching Selection Sunday with bated breath.

Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter

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Quiet 4th Quarter Dooms UNC Women’s Basketball in ACC Quarterfinal Loss

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