University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Oregon State
No. 2 Carolina Holds Off Oregon State, 82-78
November 30, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2008
FREEPORT, Grand Bahama --- Iman McFarland rebounded her own miss and scored with 11 seconds remaining to help No. 2 North Carolina hold off Oregon State, 82-78, Saturday night at St. Georges High School in the championship game of the Junkanoo Jam. McFarland finished with 16 points and a career-high 14 rebounds and joined MVP Jessica Breland on the all-tournament team.
Carolina (8-0) looked to be in control from the opening tip, as the Tar Heels raced out to an early 10-2 lead. UNC shot 56 percent from the field in the first half and took a 45-30 lead into the locker room, showing no signs of the sloppy play that plagued the start of Friday night's win over Pacific.
But Oregon State (3-1) opened the final 20 minutes by making its first seven shots from the field and slowly began to chip away at the UNC advantage. A pair of free throws from OSU's Tiffany Ducker cut the Tar Heel lead to 68-62 with 8:23 to play, but seven quick points from Cetera DeGraffenreid and McFarland pushed the gap back to 13 at 75-62 with 6:25 left.
From there, however, the Carolina offense went cold, and UNC was held scoreless over the next 4:37. Oregon State pulled to within three at 75-72 on a Brittany Kennedy three-pointer with 2:56 to play, and then to within one on a Brittney Davis bucket that made it 78-77 with 45 seconds remaining.
North Carolina followed with a timeout to set up its offense, and DeGraffenreid's miss on a long three set the stage for McFarland's heroics. The senior forward grabbed the loose ball, missed a putback, got her own rebound and finally found the target with 11 seconds left to make it 80-77.
Oregon State narrowly missed a chance to tie the game when Davis was fouled on a driving attempt and had her shot rim out. After missing the first of two free throws, Davis converted for OSU's final point. Breland and Rashanda McCants each made foul shots in the waning seconds to increase the final difference to four.
"I thought we played really well in the first half, but we didn't maintain that same intensity in the second half," UNC head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "But the good thing is we won, and we'll learn a lot from a win like this. We've got to learn to dictate play and take it to the other team for the full 40 minutes, but we'll get better."
The bigger Tar Heels dominated the blocks, outrebounding the Beavers, 44-26, and finishing with significant advantages in points in the paint and second-chance points.
"Our coaches have been working us hard on getting aggressive around the basket, and really focusing on going after the ball," McFarland said. "We've had several rebounding practices recently, and I think that extra effort really paid off tonight."
Carolina will next travel to Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 3 to face Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Oregon State will travel to San Francisco to face USF on Wednesday.
"I'm very proud of the way our team played tonight," OSU head coach LaVonda Wagner said. "We played as a team, we played with confidence and we fought hard. We were behind on rebounding and that was key in this game, but we should be very proud with our effort tonight."
