University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: Senior Struggles
February 12, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2012
By Lauren Brownlow
She'la White sat stone-faced nearly an hour after Carolina's 56-51 loss to Georgia Tech, staring at the table in the media room. The senior point guard was in as much disbelief as anyone that the Tar Heels had let a 51-44 lead with 6:41 to go slip away and fell 56-54. And really, the only basket Carolina scored in that final 6:41 was a three-pointer with two seconds left and the game out of reach.
It seemed inexplicable. The Tar Heels had 11 shots in that span (and would only make one) but committed just four turnovers and just one in the final 4:34. Many of their shots were around the basket, where they'd had a lot of success. But they couldn't get them to fall.
Carolina has had a tough week, losing at Duke and Miami by an average of 32 points. Both were on the road, and the Miami game tipped off a little less than 46 hours after the Duke game ended. They had some time off in between, but digesting those kinds of losses and continuing to persevere through them is hard. And it showed all over their faces both during and after the game. They are tired - physically, maybe. But mentally, they are exhausted.
The Tar Heels have lost three in a row before, and in similar fashion: a blowout loss at UConn followed by a narrow loss to Maryland and a home loss to Clemson.They went on to win five in a row. With a tough slate of ACC games remaining, a four-game streak is still possible but it won't be easy.
"We have to play with more heart," White said. "We can turn it up a notch. It's not like we've been playing 100% intensity-wise. We have a lot of improvement and I feel like if we take on that role for the next few games, that we'll play better."
White is the type of player that teammates look up to: intense, tough and steady. She, Chay Shegog and Laura Broomfield have been asked to not only lead by example, but also encourage and motivate their young teammates to do better, to keep their heads up through adversity.
Both White and Broomfield have been out with injuries, and Shegog carried the load admirably. But it's become a bigger burden the last few weeks, and their head coach thinks only her seniors can handle it.
"I have made a commitment to the upperclassmen. I decided this yesterday before practice, so when we went to practice, I put them out there and I told them that I was going to go with the seniors," head coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "We've only got four games left and then the ACC Tournament. If anybody is going to compete and want it, it's got to be those kids.
"The freshmen don't know yet. They haven't experienced all this. But the juniors and seniors have been here, they've played last year for the ACC Championship. If anybody has the want and the heart, it should be those upperclassmen, so I decided to go with them."
For a group of seniors like White to go from role-players to the go-to options has been a tougher transition, particularly as their younger teammates look up to them. They don't want to let them - or each other - down.
So when asked how she's handling the losses, how she's staying positive, she sighed deeply before answering.
"It's been a challenge, but we have to keep pushing. We can't dwell on it," White said. Her voice wavered, just a little. "We have to move on. We have tough games coming up which we need to win. So we need to learn from this game to prepare us for the rest of the games."
