University of North Carolina Athletics
Coach Courtney Banghart challenged her senior captain to bounce back, and Taylor Koenen did just that.
Photo by: Dana Gentry
Bounce-Back Game Puts Koenen In Rare Air
February 5, 2020 | Women's Basketball
With just over five minutes to play in Sunday's game against Clemson, North Carolina senior Taylor Koenen swished a three-pointer that put her in an elite group of Tar Heel women's basketball players. That three, which also gave her a new career scoring high, was the 100th long-range bucket of her career and made Koenen one of just three players in program history to score 1,000 points, grab 700 rebounds, hand out 300 assists and hit 100 three-pointers.
Koenen's career high – she hit one more bucket against Clemson to finish with 26 – came on the Heels of one of her scoring lows for the season: six points against Virginia on Thursday. Coach Courtney Banghart texted her that night with a bit of encouragement: "We'd be nowhere without you," Banghart wrote. And she added a hashtag: #BounceBackSunday.
That Koenen did.
It was the second time this season Koenen has reset her career scoring high, which says a lot about the kind of year she's having. The 6-2 guard is currently averaging 14.6 points per game, second on the team for the Tar Heels (16-6, 7-4), who play at Duke on Thursday.
Twenty-two games into the season, she's already taken (111) and made (43) more three-pointers than in any previous year. She's hitting 38.7 percent of her long-range shots, more than 100 points better than in any other season. She's hitting 45.2 percent of her field goals overall, the first time in her career she's shot better than 40 percent.
Koenen, a business administration major from Savage, Minn., currently ranks in the Atlantic Coast Conference's top 20 in nine categories: 11th in scoring (14.6), 19th in rebounding (6.6), 7th in field goal percentage (.452), T12 in assists (.355), 13th in steals (1.55), T10 in three-pointers made (1.95), 7th in assist/turnover ratio (1.77), T14th in defensive rebounds (5.2), 14th in minutes played (33.8).
"I've been working hard after a slow game on Thursday, so I needed to bounce back," she said after Sunday's game. "I don't like to settle and I don't like to dwell. I just wanted to attack this game with everything I had and make it worthwhile."
When she reached 1,000 career points in the game at Florida State on Jan. 12, she became just the fifth player in school history with 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists. Sunday's milestone three put her in even more rarefied air, along with just two other UNC alums: Tonya Sampson and Rashanda McCants.
"I'm really happy for her," Banghart said of her captain's performance against the Tigers. "We can't dwell on good or bad – you're never as good as you think or as bad as you think. You've just got to keep going and she kept going. She's a fun kid to watch – she plays really hard and she never takes a possession off."
Which has helped her leave a legacy at UNC.
Koenen's career high – she hit one more bucket against Clemson to finish with 26 – came on the Heels of one of her scoring lows for the season: six points against Virginia on Thursday. Coach Courtney Banghart texted her that night with a bit of encouragement: "We'd be nowhere without you," Banghart wrote. And she added a hashtag: #BounceBackSunday.
That Koenen did.
It was the second time this season Koenen has reset her career scoring high, which says a lot about the kind of year she's having. The 6-2 guard is currently averaging 14.6 points per game, second on the team for the Tar Heels (16-6, 7-4), who play at Duke on Thursday.
Twenty-two games into the season, she's already taken (111) and made (43) more three-pointers than in any previous year. She's hitting 38.7 percent of her long-range shots, more than 100 points better than in any other season. She's hitting 45.2 percent of her field goals overall, the first time in her career she's shot better than 40 percent.
Koenen, a business administration major from Savage, Minn., currently ranks in the Atlantic Coast Conference's top 20 in nine categories: 11th in scoring (14.6), 19th in rebounding (6.6), 7th in field goal percentage (.452), T12 in assists (.355), 13th in steals (1.55), T10 in three-pointers made (1.95), 7th in assist/turnover ratio (1.77), T14th in defensive rebounds (5.2), 14th in minutes played (33.8).
"I've been working hard after a slow game on Thursday, so I needed to bounce back," she said after Sunday's game. "I don't like to settle and I don't like to dwell. I just wanted to attack this game with everything I had and make it worthwhile."
When she reached 1,000 career points in the game at Florida State on Jan. 12, she became just the fifth player in school history with 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists. Sunday's milestone three put her in even more rarefied air, along with just two other UNC alums: Tonya Sampson and Rashanda McCants.
"I'm really happy for her," Banghart said of her captain's performance against the Tigers. "We can't dwell on good or bad – you're never as good as you think or as bad as you think. You've just got to keep going and she kept going. She's a fun kid to watch – she plays really hard and she never takes a possession off."
Which has helped her leave a legacy at UNC.
Players Mentioned
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