University of North Carolina Athletics
Injury Doesn't Slow Larkins
January 11, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2008
By Turner Walston
BLACKSBURG--What doesn't kill Erlana Larkins appears to make her stronger. The senior All-America broke a bone in her left hand against Liberty on Dec. 30, and finished that game with 15 points. In a cast against Georgia Tech on Saturday, Larkins recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds. Thursday, Larkins' 22 points and 10 boards put away a scrappy Virginia Tech team in Blacksburg. In her final campaign as a Tar Heel, Larkins said she put the pain aside for the good of the team. "It does hurt," she said after Thursday's game. "But you know what? I'm a senior and I just have to play through it, I guess."
"She had two double-doubles with it," Coach Sylvia Hatchell said of Larkins' cast. "I told her I may have to break the other one."
But it wasn't easy for the Tar Heels in Cassell Coliseum. Inspired by a raucous crowd fired up by Metallica's `Enter Sandman,' the Hokies stared down the #3 Tar Heels. For a half, at least. A back-and-forth first half was capped by a Rashanda McCants three-pointer, which the score at 37. The homestanding Hokies had hope, and Hatchell wanted it extinguished. "I challenged them at halftime," she said. "I told them to go out there and play 20 minutes of Carolina basketball, because we had not played well," Hatchell said. "That's probably the worst half we've played all year. We weren't taking good shots, and we weren't rebounding. We weren't getting on the foul line."
Hatchell implored her charges to get the ball inside to Larkins and LaToya Pringle. The strategy worked. For the game, the Tar Heels doubled up the Hokies, with 56 points in the paint to Virginia Tech's 28.
The Tar Heels outscored Virginia Tech by 20 points in the second. They picked up the defensive intensity as well, allowing just eight Hokie field goals after intermission.
The Tar Heels were also effective at taking the Hokie crowd out of the game. Hatchell said the experience was good preparation for Sunday's game at N.C. State. "They always play to a higher level when they play us," the coach said of Kay Yow's Wolfpack. "There's something about that light blue color that brings out the best in them." Hatchell said she looked forward to the hostile environment. "I love it," she said. "When you've got an arena like that, it's packed and you've got the crowd into it, I love that."
...Carolina played without freshman guard Rebecca Gray, who is out with a stress fracture in her right foot. Gray's absence allowed Heather Claytor and Italee Lucas to play extended minutes Thursday night.
