UNC Women’s Basketball falls to No. 5 ranked Indiana
Courtney Banghart and the UNC women’s basketball program suffered their first loss of the 2022-2023 season on Thursday night.
Early on in the season, the UNC women’s basketball team has done a great job of erasing rather large deficits to secure eventual victories.
The Tar Heels once again dug themselves into a hole on Thursday night, but this time was unable to come back from it.
Final. 63. 441. 87. 482
Behind a very strong shooting performance, the No. 5 ranked Indiana Hoosiers handed the No. 6 ranked North Carolina its first loss of the early season.
The game started out very well for Courtney Banghart’s team, as they took an early 7-0 lead on the Hoosiers. However, Indiana would quickly battle back, as the momentum stayed with the home team for the remainder of the contest.
Overall, Indiana shot 53 percent from the floor, including a staggering 55 percent from beyond the arc. The duo of Mackenzie Holmes and Sydney Parrish combined for 49 of the team’s points, as the Hoosiers scored 60 points either from three-point range or in the paint.
Other than Kennedy Todd-Williams, who tied a career-high with 20 points, and Teonni Key, who was an efficient 5-9 from the floor for 10 total points off the bench, North Carolina struggled to find an offensive rhythm.
The Tar Heels missed on a handful of key opportunities, especially in the paint, as missed layups became a consistent issue throughout this matchup between the two top-10 teams.
After making a three-pointer to begin the game, Deja Kelly, who is coming off her ACC Player of the Week performance, was just 3-12 from the field but did still impact the game with seven assists.
Both Alyssa Ustby and Eva Hodgson both also struggled shooting the basketball, as the veterans combined to make just six of their 23 attempts from the floor.
As disappointing as the outcome is, you have to give credit to Indiana, which has a very good basketball team. This group came to play, and fed off their home crowd, as with each three-pointer they made (and trust me, it seemed a lot more than just 12!) the home supporters seemed to get louder.
Not an easy environment for anyone to play in!
This was a good learning experience for the Tar Heels, as they competed in a very hostile environment against one of the nation’s top squads. The good news is that they’ll have six days to head back to campus and prepare for their upcoming three-game homestand.
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