University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: The Swarm
March 26, 2014 | Women's Basketball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
On Sunday, the young Carolina women's basketball team got a rude awakening in the NCAA Tournament. A veteran UT-Martin team jumped on them early and nearly wrestled away a first-round upset in Carmichael Arena. The Skyhawks led by as many as 18 points before the Tar Heels escaped with a two-point victory. Before that game, Michigan State had walloped Hampton 91-61, and the Spartans awaited the Tar Heels.
But Carolina took the lessons learned from Sunday and applied them to Tuesday night's second-round game: Don't let the other team dictate tempo, take quality shots and be active defensively. The result was a 62-53 win in a game the Tar Heels led by as many as 26.
“We came out slow and sluggish in that game (on Sunday) and tried to redeem ourselves, and I think we did that tonight,” said Tar Heel guard Latifah Coleman. “We came out aggressive, in an up-tempo game and I think that worked well for us tonight.”
“UT-Martin poked the beehive there, you know, and we got a swarming bunch of bees coming at us early,” Spartan coach Suzy Merchant said after the Tar Heels bested her team. “The biggest one of the bunch was Diamond DeShields.”
The Tar Heel freshman was determined not to repeat her performance from Sunday. Though she'd finished with 15 points, she'd fouled out of the game in crunch time and had only scored four points by halftime. Tuesday, she had four points, three defensive rebounds and an assist all within the game's first three minutes. “It hurt my pride a little bit as on offensive threat, being held to four points in a half,” she said. “And with what's at stake this season, I knew that I couldn't do that anymore, so it did hurt my pride as a a scorer. I told myself that that wasn't going to happen tonight.”
It didn't. DeShields' high-energy play set the tone both offensively and defensively. She took good quality shots, displaying an array of moves not often seen at this level of play. On defense, she often bothered Michigan State's Klarissa Bell, not a natural point guard, and forced the Spartans to start their offense farther from the basket. That led to long entry passes which the Tar Heels were often able to intercept, or poor shot selection. Carolina hauled in 30 defensive rebounds (DeShields herself had 12) and forced 24 Spartan turnovers. The Tar Heels had jumped out to a nine-point lead by the first media timeout and never looked back. When DeShields missed her first free-throw attempt of the night (she would finish 5 of 7), the Spartan pep band chanted 'You let the whole team down.' In fact, by that point, she herself had outscored the Spartans 7-2. DeShields would finish with a game-high 24.
Michigan State got within nine points just before halftime, but Carolina recommitted to defense and pushed the lead to 20 in the first five minutes of the second stanza. For nearly ten minutes in the second half, Michigan State was held without a field goal. The Tar Heels had been so effective bothering shots in the beginning of the game that the Spartans were tentative in the second. “I think we were a little apprehensive about taking [those shots], because we did shoot so poorly in the first half that it kind of carried on to the second half,” freshman Michigan State guard Tori Jankoska said. “We were apprehensive about shooting shots that we would normally make.” Michigan State scored the game's final 11 points, but by then the hill was much too high to climb. Carolina had harassed Michigan State's leading scorers, Aerial Powers and Annalise Pickrel into seven combined points. Jankoska tried to will her team back in the game, but she got little scoring help aside from forward Jasmine Hines.
Acting Tar Heel head coach Andrew Calder said Sylvia Hatchell's presence was felt even if she wasn't physically in Carmichael Arena. She'd conferred with him between games, and he thanked her for the game plan in the postgame press conference. “She got on me pretty good about not pressing and running more the other night, so we did a much better job today,” he said. “I thought the first 30 minutes just outstanding Carolina basketball.” The Tar Heels will take a confident performance into the Sweet Sixteen and regional play at Stanford this weekend. They put a tentative opening-round game behind them and liked the feeling after Tuesday's game much better than Sunday.
“We started off intense, and we kept that intensity up the whole game,” forward Xylina McDaniel said. “So whatever we did, we need to do that before the rest of our games.”
These Tar Heels are certainly a young team – with no seniors, they start three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior – with room to improve. It's tempting to say, 'Yes, they're talented now, but next year will be even better.' But why wait? This team is playing an exciting brand of basketball and winning games. Next year is next year. This is now.
“Next year will be too late,” freshman guard Allisha Gray said. “We want it now. The goal is to get to Nashville, the Final Four.”
That goal is in sight with two more wins in Stanford. The swarm continues. “The time is now,” Coleman said. “We're ready now.”
