University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: That Spark
February 19, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2012
By Lauren Brownlow
Since she was a freshman, nothing has come easy for Tierra Ruffin-Pratt. Shoulder injuries have derailed her playing time and her progress as a shooter and all-around player. Short shots, three-pointers, lay-ups - she's seen all of them roll off the rim.
She's been able to fight through it to become one of the team's best defenders, and she's always willing to sacrifice her body to make a play.
But she's been back - and healthy - for about half of this season, and it shows. She looked great when she got back, except she couldn't make a shot, shooting 28.1 percent. She was rebounding well, getting assists and steals, but even close shots wouldn't fall.
So she got in the gym and shot. Head coach Sylvia Hatchell said Ruffin-Pratt has put up at least 1,000 shots a week. "I've been missing a lot of easy shots, so just getting in the gym and shooting those same shots that I shoot in the game over and over and over is helping them go in," Ruffin-Pratt said.
With Carolina's leading scorer Chay Shegog sitting against NC State with early foul trouble for most of the game, Ruffin-Pratt - and the rest of her teammates - had to step up and fill the void. She responded with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting.
Laura Broomfield is Carolina's resident rebounder, and she stepped up her average just enough - from 9.7 a game to 13 today - to make up for Shegog's missing 7.0 rebounds. Ruffin-Pratt helped as well with 11 of her own.
Waltiea Rolle, who missed half the year after giving birth to a baby girl in November, has struggled to get back in shape. The junior played a season-high 23 minutes and was able to be the low-post scoring presence Shegog usually is. She had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and added five blocks.
"Both (Ruffin-Pratt and Rolle) are great kids and they've just worked hard," Hatchell said of her two high scorers. "I couldn't have asked for either of them to have had any better attitudes than they've had."
The best part about what Ruffin-Pratt did against NC State? She became a scoring threat without losing the part of her game that makes her such an asset to this team: her grit.
After NC State had cut Carolina's deficit to seven in the second half, Ruffin-Pratt went sprawling after a loose ball headfirst into the Wolfpack bench. Even though Carolina didn't get the ball, her effort play seemed to spark her teammates, who went on a 13-5 run to take a 15-point lead with 12:24 to go.
When asked if she felt the momentum shift on that play, Ruffin-Pratt joked, "Yeah, and I felt myself hit my head on the back of the chair when I dove on the floor."
"It's always those big plays like diving on the floor that can get the team going and taking a different turn because (NC State was) making big shots and coming back. We just needed that spark play - diving on the floor, getting that big steal, anything we could do to get the spark going back our way."
That's her role on this team, and it always has been. She's embraced it, and no matter what has ailed her physically, she's given her team everything that she has whenever she's on the court. And she's been a leader: while Carolina has lost a few late leads, she made sure that didn't happen this time when NC State cut Carolina's lead to nine points with 3:09 to go.
"We just talked to each other, `Don't stop playing hard. Make the smart play. Don't throw the ball away.' They can't score without the ball," Ruffin-Pratt said. "Coach Hatchell always says they can't score without the ball, so if we have possession of the ball, they can't do anything."
Hatchell has said all season that this team, still recovering from a myriad of injuries, would get better as it goes along. And Carolina passed the ultimate test: they were able to win without Shegog being a factor.
Ruffin-Pratt's offensive game is going to get better as well. Just like this team, she's been able to combine offensive improvement with her hard-nosed, defensive-minded game. "It's just going to get better and better as the rest of the season goes on," Ruffin-Pratt said of her shooting.
