UNC Women’s Basketball Can’t Overcome Injuries and Miscues

A short-handed UNC Women’s Basketball squad struggled to overcome a lack of depth and other miscues in a 76-64 loss to No. 17 Connecticut on Sunday.

The UNC Women’s Basketball team struggled at times against the No. 17 Connecticut Huskies in the final game of the Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase. Pregame, we learned that the Tar Heels would be without Kayla McPherson and Paulina Paris for the game.

The Tar Heels got out to a fast start with six quick points from Deja Kelly, but then the Huskies went on a 19-4 run to end the first quarter and hold a 19-10 lead.

As with every college basketball game, it is a game of runs, and unfortunately for the Tar Heels, UConn had longer and more runs than North Carolina. Courtney Banghart’s squad didn’t go away easily, though. After trailing 21-10 early in the second quarter, They answered with an 18-7 run of their own to tie the game at 28 with 4:16 remaining in the first half. Trading baskets with UConn and ending the first 20 minutes tied at 36.

To go along with the pregame injury news of McPherson and Paris, Reniya Kelly, who started the game strong for the Tar Heels, sharing the ball well and dishing out three assists, was ruled out mid-game with an undisclosed injury as well, leaving the North Carolina with just six reliable players left available for the remainder of the game.

The Tar Heels were led by Kelly and Maria Gakdeng in this one, as both were in double figures, scoring 11 and 14 points, respectively. Gakdeng also recorded a double-double, hauling in 13 rebounds. Our key in this game during our game preview was defense, and rebounds were going to be important for the Tar Heels to come out victorious.

North Carolina took care of one aspect of that, winning the rebounding battle 43-33. However, the defensive portion was a bit more of a problem as the Huskies were effective from long range, shooting 8-17 on three-pointers, while the Tar Heels were just 3-10.

The start of the second half was an important run for Connecticut, as they began the half on an 11-0 run to lead 47-36. The Tar Heels cut the deficit by eight at 54-46, but another 8-0 run from UConn dug North Carolina into a 62-46 hole that was just too large to climb out of.

The Tar Heels trailed 68-51 with 8:36 remaining in the game before going on an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 70-62 with 2:17 remaining. Unfortunately, the UNC Women’s Basketball team ran out of gas and couldn’t overcome the 18-point deficit, finishing with a final score of 76-64.

Guarding Paige Bueckers was a problem as she was the leading catalyst for a UConn offense that has been struggling to find its rhythm, especially against high-quality competition. Bueckers was not only the leading scorer for the Huskies, but she was also efficient in doing so, as she was 11-14 from the field while scoring 26 points.

Kelly and Gakdeng were joined by Indya Nivar, Alyssa Ustby, and Lexi Donarski as other Tar Heels to score in double-figures, despite those points coming after the game felt like it was pretty much out of hand. The Tar Heels gave UConn some problems with their defense, forcing the Huskies to turn the ball over 17 times, but were only able to convert that into 13 points off turnovers. Meanwhile, North Carolina turned the ball over 19 times, and Connecticut took advantage, scoring 21 points off those turnovers.

This was another good measuring stick for Courtney Banghart’s UNC Women’s Basketball team who has one of the tougher non-conference schedules in the country. The Tar Heels will now have a five-day break before hosting Western Carolina at home on Friday, December 15th, before finishing out the non-conference slate in Charlotte versus Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational on Tuesday, December 19th.

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