The UNC women’s basketball team notched its 20th win of the season Thursday night in Chapel Hill. It’s the first time in seven seasons, and first time in head coach Courtney Banghart’s tenure, that the Tar Heels have reached that plateau.
Oh, and they did it by beating the No. 3 Louisville Cardinals.
That's a final from Carmichael! 🙌
No. 24 UNC knocks off No. 3 Louisville ‼️ #GoHeels x @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/cRqzcnt3xC
— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) February 18, 2022
“I told them in the locker room before the game, ‘If we just do us, one minute at a time, we can do it,'” said Banghart. “Let’s see where the chips fall.”
The chips seemed to be falling for Louisville early. Carolina struggled with the Cardinal defense in the first quarter, turning the ball over seven times against their pressure. Louisville would extend what was a four-point lead at the end of the first quarter to 10 points at 30-20 in the second.
But a late 12-7 burst from the Tar Heels, powered by six points from sophomore guard Kennedy Todd-Williams, kept Carolina in the game going into halftime, down 37-32. The Tar Heels’ ball security, iffy in the first quarter, improved radically in the second. Carolina turned the ball over just twice in the period.
“For the real basketball gurus, this was a really fascinating game,” Banghart said. “Everyone sort of had to adjust, and we were sort of adjusting on the fly.”
Todd-Williams’ offensive touch rolled over into the third quarter, as did UNC’s momentum. A three-pointer from Todd-Williams cut the Louisville lead to 44-41. Though the Cardinals pushed the margin back to six, Carolina rattled off a 7-0 run in response, capped off by a layup from Eva Hodgson while being fouled. The additional free throw gave the Tar Heels their first lead since the first quarter, 48-47.
With the shot clock off, Carolina’s defense forced the Cardinals off balance on the third quarter’s last possession. That possession ended with Mykasa Robinson, who had taken only four three-pointers all year, swishing a turnaround from beyond the arc as the buzzer sounded. Fairly or not, the Cardinals entered the fourth quarter with a 50-48 lead.
It could have broken the back of the Tar Heels. Needless to say, it didn’t.
“That didn’t phase us,” Todd-Williams said. “Coach said we have a whole 10 minutes left. Just really locking in to the 10 minutes that we have. Every minute counts.”
Banghart couldn’t have known how prescient her words would be.
The Tar Heels and Cardinals traded jabs for the first half of the fourth quarter, before four straight points from Louisville’s Olivia Cochran extended the Cardinal lead back to six points at 58-52. At six-foot-three, Cochran was often the tallest player on the floor and used her size advantage to put in 14 points. But in an unlikely twist, Carolina won the rebounding battle decisively, 42-32.
“We knew it was gonna be a dogfight from the jump,” Todd-Williams said.
True to her words, Todd-Williams followed up a Hodgson layup with five straight points. A long two-point jumper gave Carolina the lead again, 59-58.
As the great teams do, the No. 3 Cardinals answered, going back up 61-59 on three straight points from guard Emily Engstler. A Hodgson jumper knotted the game again, before Engstler went back to work. Trying to give her team the lead, Engstler went up for a layup and missed. In the ensuing scrum for the rebound, she fouled sophomore guard Deja Kelly. Frustrated with the call, Engstler drew a technical foul, giving Carolina two free throws and the ball. Perhaps even more consequential, the foul was Engstler’s fifth of the night. She was done, finishing with 11 points.
Kelly split the pair of free throws. Carolina had the lead once more, but a turnover on the ensuing possession meant the Tar Heels had let crucial points get away from them.
“Honestly, I was pissed at myself,” Kelly said. “Because I don’t miss free throws.”
With the margin at one point and the clock winding down, both teams understandably tightened up. Carolina turned it over twice, while Louisville missed two shots off those turnovers. A Todd-Williams three-pointer from the corner went begging with 1:06 to go, before the Cardinals finally broke the seal with a pair of free throws from Cochran. Advantage Louisville once again.
“I get really thoughtful in those moments about how I can help my team win,” Banghart said. “For them, honestly… all I was thinking about is that this will literally rip their heart out. And… no, we’re not doing that.”
Still upset over her missed technical free throw, Kelly found the ball in her hands again. From outside the arc, Kelly drove to the ACC logo in the paint and pulled up for a jumper. Front rim, backboard, bottom of the net.
“I live for moments like these,” she said. “I love these environments. I love games like these. I knew it was time to take over.”
After a Louisville timeout and a UNC deflection over the baseline, a set play from the Cardinals left leading scorer Hailey Van Lith wide open underneath the basket. She would put in the point-blank layup to swing the pendulum back toward Louisville.
The Tar Heels then called a timeout, and out of the stoppage, Todd-Williams found a seam in the lane and attacked the bigger Cochran. She drew a shooting foul with 16 seconds left, and drained both her free throws. 66-65, Carolina.
“Obviously there was some pressure, but… I make my free throws,” Todd-Williams said.
“We weren’t worried. We knew that she was gonna put those two free throws in,” said Kelly, who finished with 18 points. “Kennedy Todd-Williams is a dog.”
Those two points were the last of Todd-Williams’ 19, a career-high for the sophomore from Jacksonville, N.C.
Louisville called a timeout to set up a final play. The ball ended up in the hands of the Cardinals’ Kianna Smith, who fired a three-pointer. It missed with three seconds left, but the rebound fell into the hands of Louisville’s Chelsie Hall. As she was falling to the floor, Hall flung up a desperation attempt from a few feet away. It rattled around the rim, came back up to where the heel meets the backboard, and stayed there for about as long as a basketball can stay still. Somehow, some way, physics worked its magic. The ball teetered to the left as the buzzer sounded, and fell to the floor.
“Literally, it felt like an hour,” said Banghart.
Once that hour passed, it set off a wild celebration inside Carmichael Arena. The result was Carolina’s highest-ranked win since a 2019 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame, and the highest of Banghart’s three-year tenure in Chapel Hill. It also keeps the Tar Heels alive for a potential double-bye in March’s ACC Tournament.
“I am so happy for them,” Banghart said. “To be validated with how much effort and how much better they’ve gotten over the last six months… I’m just really proud of them. And they deserve it. This group really deserves it.”
“We just wanted this win so bad,” said Kelly. “And we knew that we were gonna do whatever we had to to get it. And we did. Hello!”
Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter
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