The No. 23 UNC women’s basketball team fought through poor shooting and a nervy fourth quarter against Pittsburgh Thursday night in Chapel Hill. Fortunately, the scorebooks don’t give out style points alongside wins, and Carolina walked away victorious for the 19th time this season, 64-54.

UNC is now 19-4 overall this season and 9-4 in conference, and remains a player for a potential double-bye in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

“Good teams have to win ugly,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “And I just told [the players] in here, ‘We haven’t won ugly very much.’ Had they won ugly a lot, I might’ve been a little madder.”

The Tar Heels once again jumped out to a double-digit lead over the Panthers in the first quarter, though it wasn’t quite as dominant as the team’s win against Miami last Sunday. A trio of three-pointers, including two from junior Eva Hodgson, staked Carolina to an 18-7 advantage after 10 minutes.

That lead would balloon to 17 points at 30-13 in the second quarter, with two Hodgson free throws capping off a 7-0 burst. She would finish with 14 points off the bench, second only to sophomore guard Deja Kelly, who had 17.

“You contribute in any ways possible,” said Hodgson, who started 60 games in two years at William & Mary before transferring to UNC. “If I was needed to be a cheerleader on the bench, that’s what I would be. Whatever I’m needed to do, I’m going to do.”

“Eva brings energy. She brings voice. She brings a competitiveness,” said Banghart. “And she really brings a collaboration. She collaborates our group, and she’s kind of the glue of that.”

Carolina expanded its lead to as many as 22 points in the third quarter, but the Panthers wouldn’t let the Tar Heels off easily. Pitt rattled off a 15-0 run over the late third and early fourth quarters, cutting the UNC lead down to 51-44.

“They’re relentless. They never stop,” Banghart said of the Panthers. “The basket gets bigger when you have less pressure.”

Needing a basket, Kelly found Hodgson open for a critical three-pointer, which she drained to halt the Pitt rally. The Panthers wouldn’t get that close again for the rest of the game.

“Usually every time I pass it to her, I know she’s gonna hit that three,” Kelly said. “That definitely was a game-changer for us.”

Kelly and Hodgson would provide UNC’s only field goals of the fourth quarter, with the rest of the points coming on free throws from Kelly and sophomore guard Kennedy Todd-Williams. The free throw disparity was staggering: UNC made 20 of 26 foul shots, while Pitt took only four and made only one.

“It was a hard game to get in any sort of rhythm,” Banghart said. “There were a lot of fouls called. There were a lot of fouls not called. There was a lot of kind of choppy play.”

Choppy or not, the Tar Heels will take the win in a season which has seen the program burst back into the national conversation. UNC’s 19 wins are the program’s most in a single season in seven years. The Tar Heels are currently in a fight with Virginia Tech for fifth place in the ACC, with both clamoring for the last double-bye spot in Greensboro next month. Coincidentally, the Hokies are up next on Carolina’s schedule, welcoming the Tar Heels into Blacksburg for a critical Sunday matchup. UNC took the first game in Carmichael Arena, 71-46.

A win in Blacksburg would give Carolina its first 20-win season of Banghart’s tenure in Chapel Hill. Hodgson, who could turn pro after this year due to being four years removed from high school, wants to stick around for more.

“I’m staying,” she said. “Y’all are stuck with me.”

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications

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