North Carolina might have grabbed its easiest win this season with an 83-45 victory over Wake Forest Thursday night in Carmichael Arena. Carolina is boosted to a 21-6 record and an 8-5 conference mark. The Demon Deacons have dropped to 10-18 overall with only one conference win.
It is pretty much impossible for a basketball team to win games when they collect almost as many turnovers as points. With a whopping 20.5 give-aways a game, Wake Forest leads the ACC in turnovers. Thursday night only boosted that average even more.
Wake Forest head coach Jen Hoover called turnovers an “Achilles Heel” for her young team, and UNC’s athleticism and trap defense only made it harder for the Demon Deacons to protect the ball.
“Unfortunately, with turnovers, they come in bunches,” Hoover said. “And once they start coming it’s hard to stop them. You saw me try to call a couple quick timeouts to try and slow things down a bit but we’ve got to continuously talk about why we’re making those turnovers and decision making. With a team like (North Carolina) the holes close up a lot faster because they are so athletic so we really talk about ball fakes and being decisive with our passes.”
By the time Wake Forest had 23 points at the end of the first half; they had already forfeited the ball 17 times and given UNC a solid 20-point lead. The Demon Deacons gave up the ball a total of 34 times that night, which led to 40 extra points for the Tar Heels.
But UNC knew how to make some noise with their own offense as well. In a balanced effort by the Tar Heels, five players scored in double digits while sophomore Stephanie Mavunga and senior Brittany Rountree added nine. The night’s leading scorer, Allisha Gray, had 16 points while playing only 15 minutes with a case of the flu. But it was safe to say Gray was not knocked off of her game.
“When she’s healthy and plays hard she can do anything she wants to do,” Coach Hatchell said with an assuring laugh.
For the Demon Deacons, their scoring came from the outside with guards Millesa Calicott and Amber Campbell who had 16 and 14, respectively. As for Wake Forest standout Dearica Hamby, the night was a frustrating one. Hamby, who Coach Hatchell referred to as a “certain first-round draft pick”, only put up seven points and 10 rebounds. This marked her first game of not scoring in double-digits since January of 2013.
Carolina’s junior guard N’Dea Bryant had the recipe for success in stifling Hamby’s game.
“I just tried to stay in front of her and just not let her body me up,” Bryant said. “Just move my feet a lot because she’s definitely bigger than me so I definitely just let her not get the ball which makes it easier for me because if she gets the ball then its tougher for me to stop her.”
Up next for UNC is a quick break from the icy air of Chapel Hill to sunny Florida to face Miami on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.
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