University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: Talented Bulldogs Provide Test
March 26, 2008 | Women's Basketball
March 26, 2008
By Lauren Brownlow
NORFOLK--It didn't seem as if much was going right for Carolina as the Tar Heels took on the No. 8 seed, Georgia. Because of an overtime contest between Old Dominion and Virginia, the game didn't start until 10:07 at night and didn't end until after 12:15 in the morning. Carolina couldn't shake the Bulldogs in the first half, and things got quite a bit more serious quickly. Georgia began the game hitting just 2-of-9 three-pointers but when the Bulldogs went on a 14-0 run, they hit 4-of-4 in a minute and a half span in the first half. From the 6:30 mark to the 4:11 mark, Carolina saw a seven-point lead evaporate and turn into a seven-point deficit.
"We knew that they were hitting some open shots. There was nothing we could do about it. We just felt like they were open and we didn't do a good job of communicating on the screens and also helping on the screens. But we knew that towards the second half, those same shots wouldn't be falling. A lot of their players play a lot of minutes so as your legs start to go, the shots start to go also," Erlana Larkins said.
That is all a part of playing Carolina basketball, which Carolina quickly got back to doing. The Tar Heels ended the first half on a 10-0 run to go up 36-33, including scoring eight points in the final 2:05. In the second half, Carolina had six points off of three Georgia turnovers in the first 58 seconds on its way to mounting a 10-0 run, 20-0 counting the second-half run, to take a 13-point lead with 17:29 to play.
Hatchell was not pleased with her team after the win over Bucknell on Sunday, saying that the intensity level was inconsistent. LaToya Pringle said that Carolina did not improve in that area after getting up by 16 on Georgia in the second half and still being unable to finish the job. The Bulldogs hung around until the end, getting as close as seven points down with 6:05 to go. It was a sloppy game, filled with defensive errors by both teams, turnovers due to miscommunications and lots of fouls. The team teams combined to shoot 46 free throws. In the last 1:27, Georgia shot 5-of-6 from the line and Carolina shot 8-of-8. Carolina was, at times, impatient against a zone and did not get the ball inside. Carolina left Bulldog players open for three-pointers. But as Hatchell pointed out, this Georgia team is not Bucknell.
"At the end of the game we were sitting over there saying, `This is probably good for us.' I don't want it be too good, but I think it was probably good for us. Georgia's a good team. You look at their games, who they've lost to - Tennessee (by nine), Vanderbilt (by eight and seven), LSU (by six), all those were less than ten points. This is an excellent team," Hatchell said.
But the Georgia defense made things incredibly difficult for both Larkins and LaToya Pringle who combined to shoot 8-of-25 from the field (though they scored 28 points and combined for 18 rebounds). Larkins was particularly frustrated; the senior was going up strong and even when she had good looks, she had trouble getting them to fall. "We were going inside but we weren't able to score. We weren't getting on the foul line, either. I think we got a little bit frustrated with that. I can't ever remember Erlana going 5-for-17, but she got on the foul line a lot," Hatchell said. "But again, then Rashanda (McCants) started cutting (to the basket) and I thought Cetera (DeGraffenreid) did an excellent job, too. She was 5-for-7 and made some big baskets for us. So when one thing is taken away, so many other ones take over."
Rashanda McCants took this game over when it mattered. If there is such a thing as having a quiet 23 points, she had them, shooting 9-of-13 from the field and adding eight rebounds and two steals in 37 minutes. She played longer than every Tar Heel, even an obviously exhausted Erlana Larkins. At the 2:06 mark in the first half, she cut Carolina's deficit from five to three when she drove to the basket. In the second half, she had a steal and fall-away jump shot and another lay-up off a turnover with the first two minutes.
"I was walking down the hall coming in here and I patted her. I said, `Rashanda, great game. Thanks!' She did a lot of good things. Her drives to the basket, I thought she made really good decisions on her penetration and her drives to the basket that made a major, major difference. We probably should have done more of that. She had an outstanding game," Hatchell said.
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
