UNC Women's Basketball Wins Three Straight in Weekend Tournament

UNC women’s basketball pulled out a 70-63 win against Yale on Sunday afternoon in Carmichael Arena. Behind an impressive effort from sophomore Jamie Cherry, the Tar Heels picked up their fourth straight win.

Cherry finished with 24 points, as the guard made 7-12 field goal attempts, as well as added a team-high four assists and completed 8 – 9 free throws. Cherry has been impressive early in the season, but Sunday’s performance was extra remarkable, in what may be a breakout season. Cherry averaged 6.4 points per game last season and had a season-high 15 points her freshman year.

Cherry continued to play in a full facemask after breaking her nose on Friday night, which has been a total adjustment, she said.

“I think yesterday was a kind of getting used to the mask thing, just getting used to being able to see out of it and getting my breathing down pat. Just of course seeing those two three’s go in, because the past couple days I haven’t been hitting shots, was very confidence building.”

N’Dea Bryant has been piecing together a set of solid games, but UNC head coach Sylvia Hatchell said the senior guard may have played her best game as a Tar Heel against Yale. Bryant had her first career double-double, with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

“N’Dea, probably in my estimate, had the best game she’s ever had because she had 13 rebounds. I challenged her before the game and she did it. I said ‘N’Dea, don’t let me down’ and she didn’t let me down. So that’s great that she had a great game and we need her to keep doing that,” said Hatchell.

Bryant said her first instinct is typically to rebound, especially when Cherry drives to the net.

“Definitely most of the time to rebound first, but usually my teammates find me on the open shot, so it’s not like I have to do a whole lot to try to get a shot off. That’s definitely my first thought coming into the game and then getting those easy lay-ups and seeing the ball going in the hole makes taking a shot a little bit easier.”

Senior Xylina McDaniel contributed a season-high 11 points in her third game back, while freshman Destinee Walker added 10 points and missed her first free-throw, going 18 – 19 on the season thus far.

Once again, UNC played a physical game that featured no ties and no lead changes, something the Tar Heels struggled with their first couple games of the season. North Carolina entered intermission with a 33-21 lead, which only grew in the third period off of a 12-0 UNC run, putting the Tar Heels up 49-35 for a 14-point advantage, their largest of the game.

20 turnovers and a dull 26.8 percent three-point completion average prevented the Tar Heels from truly breaking away in the game, as the Bulldogs finished the third period with seven straight points, bringing the game too close for comfort, with UNC up 49-42 and ten minutes left to play. The Bulldogs came as close as six points in the final minutes, however, 11 of Cherry’s 24 points came in the fourth period, cementing the UNC win.

UNC will next play on Wednesday, November 25th in a home game against Pacific at 3 p.m.

“I’m proud of these kids for hanging in there the last three days. It’s amazing how we’ve improved as a team in the last eight days. We’ve had different people step up in different games. We’re looking forward to playing Wednesday and then going up to the Mohegan Sun for the final part of this Naismith,” Coach Hatchell said.

UNC Women’s Basketball Wins Three Straight in Weekend Tournament

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