University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
No. 2 Carolina Drops Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 105-49
December 15, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell still doesn't like how her team is rebounding. Other than that, the second-ranked Tar Heels are doing just fine.
Cetera DeGraffenreid scored 19 points to lead North Carolina to a 105-49 rout over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Monday night.
She'la White had 17 points and Chay Shegog added 15 both career highs for the Tar Heels (11-0), while Jessica Breland added 10.
North Carolina, which shot 53.3 percent from the field (40-of-75), has won 74 consecutive nonconference home games.
"We got outrebounded, I'm not happy about that one bit," Hatchell said of the slim 42-40 advantage in favor of the Lady Lions.
But when the Lady Lions tried to run with the fast-breaking Tar Heels, they turned the ball over 36 times, which resulted in 44 points for North Carolina.
"That's nice," DeGraffenreid said. "You get more possessions and more shots off."
North Carolina got 13 first-half points from Shegog on 5-of-6 shooting to lead 52-27 at halftime, but Hatchell wasn't pleased and let her team know about it in the locker room.
The Tar Heels got the message and came out executing in the second half, scoring 18 consecutive points to lead 70-29 just over 5 minutes into the second half.
"First half, I thought they were going down the floor better than we were," Hatchell said. "We talked about that at halftime, and in the second half I thought we did a better job in our (defensive) traps."
Ciara Shields and Jonae Prince-Coleman both had nine points for the Lady Lions (1-6), who shot 31 percent and saw leading scorer, Arica Green with a 16.0 average, held to two points.
"You can't beat a middle-school team with (36) turnovers," Arkansas-Pine Bluff coach Danny Evans said. "Arica Green wasn't on her game. She missed some shots that she normally will knock down. She needs to score for us."
North Carolina's largest margin of victory on the season showed how much depth the Tar Heels have.
Rashanda McCants, their second-leading scorer, dressed but didn't play because of a sprained finger on her right hand.
But Christina Dewitt played her first game after a year-and-a half away from basketball and all 13 players logged at least 11 minutes.
Shegog was 6-of-8 from the field and had four rebounds and White was 6-of-11 from the field, including hitting two 3-pointers.
"Oh, I thought Chay Shegog played really well," Hatchell said. "She's just getting better and better.
"She'la, she was pushing the ball good for us and then she started making her shots."
With Tennessee falling to No. 11 in Monday's AP poll, the Tar Heels have the longest streak (70 weeks) of being in the top 10. Monday's poll also marked the 100th week all-time that North Carolina has been in the top five.
"So tell people they need to come and get in the stands," Hatchell said, referring to Monday's attendance of 1,113.
