University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: Back On Their Heels
March 15, 2009 | Women's Basketball
March 15, 2009
By Lauren Brownlow
Even though the 75-69 win over South Dakota, a team still transitioning into Division I, was closer than most would have thought, Coach Hatchell was not surprised. The former Francis Marion head coach on the Division II level has never forgotten her roots and has also never forgotten how hard that team played for her.
"I tried to tell the players that ... even though they just went Division I, they were used to winning championships in Division II and they have that mentality. I know," Hatchell said. "I coached on that level and I know. This was for them like a national championship game, coming here, playing us, playing in the Dean Smith Center. These kids were fired up for it and we were pretty flat."
And Hatchell's prophecies turned out to be dead on. But like a child brushing off the warnings of her parents about life's dangers, Carolina did not seem to have the focus it needed early on. As three-pointer after three-pointer rained down, players looked dazed.
"Oh, man," Jessica Breland said with a wry smile after being asked what she was thinking during the three-point barrage. "I kind of ran by them and when I do that to players, usually they miss because they get kind of scared, but they were hitting shots. I was like, `Oh God, it's going to be a long night.'"
The thing about this South Dakota team, though, was that it was not scared. The Coyotes made ten of their first 13 three-point tries and by halftime, they lead 41-32. They had a big red-clad contingency sitting behind their bench and as a team without a conference, they had no postseason. This was their postseason.
"Our biggest thing was take it possession by possession, not get too overwhelmed with the moment and treat it like a basketball game. We got some momentum. I think we got Carolina on their heels a little bit," South Dakota Head Coach Ryun Williams said. "What was going through my mind was, `This is really fun.' ... The biggest thing we wanted to get accomplished early was we wanted the ball to go in the basket and get our kids relaxed. Sometimes, if you get off to a bad start - say you go 0-for-6, 0-for-7, and then the monster really rears its ugly head. We were having a blast."
Still, teams often come to Chapel Hill with nothing to lose. This was different somehow. Teams generally surrender to Carolina's superior athleticism or depth. South Dakota simply refused to quit. The Coyotes took a quick 15-point lead in the second half but saw it evaporate in about six minutes. They stuck with it and had the lead as late as the 6:36 mark.
A three-pointer with 3:17 left by Ashley Wiemann, who hit 7-of-10 three's, tied the game. She unleashed the kind of three-point barrage that brought up thoughts of famous Tar Heel killers like Weber State's Harold Arceneaux. In the first half, she hit 6-of-8 three's and all six came in an eight-minute, 11-second period.
Italee Lucas was assigned to "stay in her shirt" in the second half held her to 1-of-2 from beyond the arc, one allowed when Lucas broke the rule and helped off of her. But Lucas stayed in her pocket most of the time. Still, the senior whose accent brings up stereotypical images like Frances McDormand in the movie "Fargo" took on the attitude her coach wanted the team to have.
"This was our last game and I didn't expect us even to do this well," Wiemann said. "Carolina is a great team. We watch them on TV. We didn't expect to ever be here. But we're just from the little state of South Dakota and it was just a great time out here today."
In many ways, this game summed up quite a few things about not only Carolina's season, but also the women's basketball season as a whole - parity is increasing across the nation and if teams don't watch out, they could be beaten on any given night. It also showed that a flat Carolina team not playing up to its potential can at times allow itself to get too rattled and lose confidence too quickly.
Making it through a game like this against a team that seemingly could not miss and out-played Carolina for at least a half of this game is what Hatchell wanted for her team. And of course, even though the game was close, Hatchell has already had coaches calling her about scheduling this game, something Carolina has never done.
"This was exactly what we needed, a game like this," Hatchell said. "We'll see how we do in the NCAA Tournament, but I've already had several coaches of my coaching buddies say, `We're going to do that next year,' because of the long layoff. Why not? You work all year for the NCAA, why do you take off two weeks and not play a game before the biggest time of your season?"
