The UNC women’s basketball team erased a nine-point deficit in the game’s final four minutes against Vermont in the Gulf Coast Showcase on Friday. The Tar Heels ended the day on a 15-3 run to rally past the Catamounts 54-51 and advance to the showcase’s second round on Saturday, where they will face No. 16 Kansas State.

Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby paced Carolina on offense, combining for 33 points when no other Tar Heel scored more than seven. Kelly and Ustby were part of another different starting lineup for head coach Courtney Banghart, who started Reniya Kelly, Indya Nivar and Maria Gakdeng alongside Deja Kelly and Ustby. Iowa State transfer Lexi Donarski played 19 minutes (none in the first half) off the bench and scored seven points.

Carolina struggled mightily in the game’s opening half, scoring just eight points in the first quarter and nine points in the third to trail 28-17 at halftime. UNC shot 8-33 (24.2 percent) from the field and tallied zero assists. It was Ustby who got the offense going in the third quarter, scoring seven of the team’s 13 points as Carolina shaved two points off the deficit.

Deja Kelly then took over in the fourth, scoring 10 points on 3-6 shooting as the Tar Heels clawed their way back. Kelly scored UNC’s first five points of the quarter before clutch buckets from Ustby, Donarski and Kayla McPherson helped erase the Catamount lead. A layup from McPherson gave UNC its first lead of the half at 50-49 with 1:47 left. All six of her points came in the final quarter.

With the win, UNC improves to 5-0 for the fifth consecutive season, though the team will now face its first ranked and first high-major opponent on Saturday when it faces the Wildcats. Carolina hasn’t defeated a ranked opponent on a neutral court since last season’s Phil Knight Invitational in Oregon.

 

Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter

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