No. 20 Heels Make Quick Work of Gardner-Webb, 109-44

Saturday, November 12

Chapel Hill

1:00 PM

North Carolina

109

Gardner-Webb

Women's Basketball Ticket Packages Now Available

November 12, 2011 | Women's Basketball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Nov. 12, 2011

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - Strong post play for No. 20 North Carolina should be a given this season.

The question is how much help the 6-5 Chay Shegog and 6-1 skywalker Laura Broomfield, both seniors, will get from their teammates.

If Saturday's season opener was any indication the Tar Heels are on the right track, as they rolled last season's Big South champion Gardner-Webb 109-44.

"We've got some kids that can shoot the ball," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "But the big girls were running the floor hard and that makes a big difference. We know our opponents have to work to try to keep them from getting easy scores, and our guards are good at passing and shooting and driving."

Both big players had double-doubles, as Shegog tied her career high with 19 points and added 10 rebounds while Broomfield chipped in 15 points and 14 boards as the Tar Heels won their 51st straight game in the month of November.

"Broom and I stayed down here all summer working with (strength coach Jason Beaulieu)," Shegog said. "He's a big reason for our conditioning. Our guards put a lot of pressure on their guards today, which made it easier to get steals."

There was plenty of help on the perimeter. Freshman wing Megan Buckland started in her career debut and finished with 17 points, freshman wing Danielle Butts came off the bench for 12 with nine rebounds.

Every one of the 10 healthy Tar Heels played and had at least seven points, including sophomore guard Latifah Coleman with a career high nine.

"I don't want to say I was surprised, but I was really happy with the energy the freshmen came in with," Broomfield said. "Chay is always consistent. I'm just excited about the year and how we're going to do."

Catrina Green and KiKi Smith had 10 points each for Gardner-Webb, 0-3 all-time against UNC.

"We graduated 54 points out of 67," GWU coach Rick Reeves said. "Maybe I made a mistake in not playing an exhibition game. I still feel like we've got a pretty good team but we didn't play like it today. I told them they've been waiting to play in a game like this all their lives, and asked them why they were afraid. I'm not used to getting beat like this."

UNC shot 46.2 percent to the Runnin' Bulldogs' 24.3, outrebounded them 62-40 and committed 19 turnovers to the visitors' 33. The Tar Heels were 6-for-20 from 3-point range, with Buckland and senior guard She'la White (eight points) canning two apiece.

Gardner-Webb led 5-4 following a 3-pointer from Jasmine Dale with 18:57 left in the first half, but the Tar Heels responded with a 14-5 run to get a working margin.

The big run came early in the second half, when UNC scored 18 straight to make it 84-28.

UNC, which has its first five games at Carmichael Arena before visiting Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 30, will be home again on Sunday against South Carolina-Upstate.