North Carolina
Virginia
No. 7 Women's Hoops Victorious Over Virginia, 74-54
January 30, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Jan 30, 2003
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell wasn't very happy in the aftermath of her team's worst shooting performance of the season.
"That was a pretty ugly first half," she said.
Still, the seventh-ranked Tar Heels overcame 24-percent shooting from the floor in the first 20 minutes to pull away for a 74-54 victory Thursday night over Virginia.
ut Hatchell was able to muster some words of encouragement even after her team missed 31 of its first 41 shots and led by just 26-25 at the break.
"I told the team at halftime not to panic," she said. "We played pretty poorly and still led by one.
"We were going to play better in the second half. And we did."
The Tar Heels shot much better - 17-for-34 in the second half - but still had their worst night of the season overall. They made 36 percent for the game.
Virginia shot almost as poorly, 21-of-54 (38.9 percent) from the floor, and killed any chance of an upset with its season-high 27 turnovers.
"It was just sloppiness that hurt us," Virginia's LaTonya Blue said. "It was more us being sloppy than it was their defense."
North Carolina (18-2 overall, 7-1 ACC) never trailed after overcoming an early 7-2 deficit, but didn't put the Cavaliers away until the closing minutes.
Virginia went without a field goal in the game's final 3:39, while North Carolina reeled off 11 straight points before a single Cavalier free throw to end the scoring with 41 seconds left.
"The wheels came off there for a while," Virginia's Debbie Ryan said. "There was a lot of sloppy play there."
Nikita Bell scored 13 of her 21 points in the second half, and La'Tangela Atkinson had 14 points and 12 rebounds for North Carolina. Candace Sutton added 11 points, and Coretta Brown had 10 points and nine assists.
"I don't like the word 'slump,' and I won't say that the teams are tired, but it's that time of the season when you've played a lot of basketball and maybe you're just not as focused as you have been," Hatchell said of the poor shooting from both sides.
ell, 4-of-8 in the first half, had eight points by the break. She scored the Tar Heels' first six points of the second half and six of their last eight in an 11-1 closing run.
Coming off a career-high 30 points against Maryland, Bell connected on 10 of 15 shots.
lue led Virginia (8-11, 2-6) with 14 points. Brandi Teamer had 12.
Virginia was outrebounded by 51-46, but was hurt by the Tar Heels' 24-12 edge in offensive boards. That led to a 20-3 margin for UNC in second-chance points.
"Virginia's a good team with a lot of good athletes," Hatchell said. "They're just young."
Ryan agreed.
"One thing that's going to help us is that we'll be home for a while," Ryan said. "Five of our first eight conference games have been on the road, but now we'll be home for three of the next four. That's going to be trouble for the rest of the conference."
