"Be hard to beat."
With about three minutes to go in the first half of Carolina's first top-10 vs. top-10 matchup since January 2014, Carolina seemed easy to beat. Iowa State was up 32-15, limiting the Tar Heels to just six field goals and converting with success in their two-headed offensive attack. Stephanie Soares, a 6-6 center, had scored 11 points for the Cyclones, while four well-timed threes helped to add to the lead. The Carolina offense seemed stuck in the mud, one of the nation's elite teams in Iowa State was finding its offensive groove, and it seemed the problems that had Carolina down at halftime in consecutive games finally were ready to catch up with the Tar Heels. If you're an outsider, that's a fair thought. But inside the Carolina locker room? Inside the mind of Banghart and her players? A different story. Iowa State hadn't beaten them yet, and Carolina wanted to make that a hard task.
"They knew they were going to have to meet me at halftime and wanted me to be a less crabby coach at halftime," Banghart joked.
Over the final 2:21 of the half, the Tar Heels held Iowa State scoreless and forced three turnovers. The 17-point lead was down to 13. That was a microcosm of what was to come. A slightly-less-crabby Banghart went to work with her team. Even with Iowa State's success offensively, the Tar Heels' fourth-year leader wasn't too concerned with the Cyclones' ability to score. Instead, she wanted her team to play up to their potential offensively.
"We scored only 22 points in the first half so we spent a lot of time on the offensive end," Banghart said of the locker room focus.
The offensive sets Carolina utilized in the second half clearly worked. The Tar Heels shot 54.8 percent (17-for-31) from the floor in the second half, including a 6-for-9 effort from three. That nearly-55-percent clip was a massive jump from the 21.2 percent (7-for-33) Carolina shot in the first half. In fact, it's the largest disparity between shooting numbers in halves for Carolina under Banghart – either positive or negative. With offensive numbers like that, a team is certainly hard to beat.
"I don't think we were a hard team to beat in the first half, but we became a hard team to beat as the game got going," Banghart reflected.
Thirteen became 10. 10 became eight. Down to six. And with 7:51 to play, a Deja Kelly three-pointer leveled the score at 53. With the offense in gear, a 14-0 Tar Heel run to start the fourth was the defensive push needed to take the lead. Iowa State would battle back to tie the game at 64 before the Tar Heels scored nine of the game's next 10 points and won by nine.
"We've got a bunch of fighters," Banghart said immediately after the game, admitting the magnitude of the effort hadn't sunk in yet. "You can push us and push us, and then we just had enough."
Coachability and a never-quit attitude? That's pretty hard to beat.
Here's what else caught my eye this week…
National Exposure
Sixty-one of the Tar Heels' 73 points in the Iowa State win – and 57 of the 85 in Thursday's tournament-opening win over Oregon – were scored by members of Carolina's junior class. The first class signed by Banghart and her staff at Carolina, the juniors have been the primary architects of the program's rise to the level of ACC and national contender. It's no secret that the Tar Heels played the under-the-radar card last season, but as the marquee wins start to pile up, so do the opportunities for the players we've come to know and love to show their skills to a broader audience. One of those skills, of course, being that intangible toughness.
"I thought last year, we were hard to beat," Banghart said. "We proved that night after night. It took playing South Carolina the way we did for people to see that."
That 69-61 effort in March's Sweet 16, the Gamecocks' lone single-digit victory en route to a National Championship, was a byproduct of a collective growth and improvement process. It was perhaps the first time some casual women's basketball fans heard the names Deja Kelly, Alyssa Ustby, or Kennedy Todd-Williams. They heard them again in Portland, with Kelly's 29-point game against Iowa State earning her the tournament MVP and ACC Player of the Week nods. Ustby was named to the All-Tournament Team. Todd-Williams splashed in 17 points in the title game. Though many more now know those names, that's definitely not the main purpose of playing on such a big stage.
"We're not worried about making statements yet," Banghart said. "We're worried about getting better and having competitive opportunities."
Hodgson's Epic Thanksgiving Day
Of course, Carolina wouldn't have reached Sunday's title game of the PKI if not for another comeback win, the six-point triumph over Oregon on Thanksgiving Day. Eva Hodgson, with two of her five brothers in attendance, was to thank for the Carolina win. The graduate transfer from William & Mary set her Carolina-career best scoring mark with 21 points and hit five threes in the process, matching her career high for both her time with the Tar Heels and the Tribe. It marked the second straight big game from Hodgson, who scored 18 with four triples in the James Madison win the previous Sunday. One of Hodgson's best moments against the Ducks was a four-point play midway through the fourth quarter that gave the Tar Heels the lead for good, a contested three that still went in despite contact to the hand. For Banghart, communicating Hodgson's green light is critical to the Tar Heels' success.
"I've got to find a way to keep convincing her that when she shoots threes, we're better," Banghart said, sounding very similar to her tone after the JMU performance. "It's early in the year, we're still figuring out who we are, but it's just so obvious to me that when she looks to shoot, we're better."
Adams Impacts Oregon Win
Ten, 20, heck, even 50 years from now, when someone looks at a box score from Carolina's win over Oregon, they'll see Destiny Adams credited with five points and five rebounds over 23 minutes as a bench player. Not bad by any means, but not the kind of game-changing effort you'd think would be essential to win a game over a No. 18-ranked Ducks squad. Dig deeper, and there will be clues, though. Two blocks and two steals are the only recorded stats of Adams' special defensive day, when she helped shut down the long and athletic Ducks with a mix of hustle and physicality.
"She's just so active," Banghart reflected. "She gets her hands on things, she gets on the floor. She's just relentless, and she's got no fear. The way in which she competes, you can really trust."
Adams' growth from her freshman to sophomore season continues to be one of the most positive developments of the early season for the Tar Heels.
Up Next
Remember how we had to wait nine years for the Tar Heels to play in an all-top-10 matchup? Well, the wait is a lot shorter this time. A mere 94-ish hours after the final horn sounded in Portland, Carolina will head to Bloomington, Ind. to face No. 5 Indiana. The game is part of the final edition of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, as the ACC will instead challenge the SEC beginning with the 2023-24 season. The Hoosiers, Elite Eight participants in 2021 and a Sweet 16 team last season, are off to a 7-0 start this year with a signature win at Tennessee on Nov. 14. Coach Teri Moren's team won't be complete for Thursday, as all-Big Ten guard Grace Berger is day-to-day with a knee injury but will not play against the Tar Heels. That doesn't mean Indiana doesn't have threats. Forward Mackenzie Holmes averages 20.0 PPG on a whopping 77 percent field goal efficiency, and guards Sara Scalia and Yarden Garzon are both three-point sharpshooters. But as we've learned, the combo of a great post and three-point shooting has been beatable for Carolina against Oregon and Iowa State. Tip on Thursday in Bloomington is at 6:00 p.m., with our THSN coverage starting at 5:30 p.m. with the Reeds Jewelers Pregame Show. Catch the broadcast locally on 97.9 FM/1360 AM in the Triangle (starting at 6:00), or worldwide for free via our THSN streaming platforms starting at 5:30 p.m.: GoHeels.com, the GoHeels app, and the Varsity Network app from Learfield.
Then, the Tar Heels will break from game action for six days for exams. The action returns on Dec. 7 with a visit from UNCW, the first of three straight home games at Carmichael Arena and five straight games in the state of North Carolina. In the meantime, be on the lookout for information on the return of the Holding Court radio show, the Tar Heel Sports Network's weekly radio show dedicated to Carolina Women's Basketball. We're excited to bring the show back!
That's all for now. Go Heels!
-Matt
December 01, 2022 at 12:08AM
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Carmichael Comments: Hard To Beat - University of North Carolina Athletics - UNC Athletics
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