By R.L. Bynum
BLACKSBURG, Va. — It only seems like Elizabeth Kitley and Georgia Amoore have been dominating the ACC for 10 years. It’s actually only been five seasons, but plenty of coaches in the league won’t miss them.
But even after that duo helped the Hokies beat North Carolina for the sixth consecutive time, 74–62 on Sunday, don’t include UNC coach Courtney Banghart in that group.
“I just told the guys in the locker room that I will [miss them],” said Banghart, pointing out that ESPN’s “GameDay” probably wouldn’t have come to Blacksburg earlier in the day if the game wasn’t full of stars. “This is what’s so great about women’s basketball. There are so many good players. I’m not rooting for good players to leave our conference, that’s for sure.”
Among those stars was UNC senior guard Deja Kelly, who scored a season-high 29 points.
Kitley, whose first ACC win was 76–70 over Carolina on Jan. 5, 2020, has only lost twice to the Tar Heels. She ensured a third loss wouldn’t happen on her senior day with 34 points. Amoore, who dished out 11 assists to become the Hokies’ all-time assists leader, netted 17 of her 19 points in the second half at a sold-out and raucous Cassell Coliseum.
The Tar Heels (18–10, 10–6 ACC) battled back from a 17-point hole early in the second quarter to cut it to six by halftime with Amoore on the bench with two fouls. But UNC never got closer as Amoore scored 11 third-quarter points, and the Hokies (23–4, 14–2) clinched a share of the ACC regular-season title.
“Liz didn’t hurt us at all on the block; it was really around the perimeter,” Banghart said. “If you help too much there, then you give up 3s to other guys. There’s a lot of possessions that we’ll like on the defensive end [when reviewing the video]; we really made them play well.”
After scoring a season-low five points in the first quarter, many would have wilted in a hostile environment, but the Tar Heels showed resiliency in making it a game for a while.
“It’s just a toughness that I know that my team needs from me as one of the leaders that I have to bring in and help bring along,” Kelly said. “There’s no quit in this team. There’s been multiple times this season where it could have kind of been like, ‘OK, we know how it’s going to go.’ There’s always a fight. I knew that we were going to fix whatever we need to fix in that moment, on both ends of the ball and just continue to fight.”
As has happened a few times this season, UNC rode Kelly’s offense, with points from the rest of the team hard to come by.
Kelly, with her 11th game of at least 20 points this season and fourth with at least 25, had three fewer field goals (10) than the rest of the team (13) on 15 fewer shots.
Alyssa Ustby fouled out for the sixth time this season, finishing with seven points and 10 rebounds. Lexi Donarski, a game after scoring 23 points against N.C. State, was the only Tar Heel to score in double figures with 10 points, two 3-pointers and three assists.
Indya Nivar got her fourth start and first since the UConn game on Dec. 10, but was 1 of 10 from the floor and missed all five 3-point attempts. After Ali Zelaya hit four 3-pointers in the win against N.C. State, she only hit one and finished with three points.
“The way they were playing, they were really denying Lexi really hard, they were denying Indy really hard,” Kelly said. “They were trying to just not to let us catch, not to let us get the ball movement that we wanted. So, ultimately, the slots were open in the ball-screen action. So, I saw my openings and I took it. I obviously knew that Kitley was in drop cover, so we tried to involve as many ball screens as possible.”
This was unlike the other five games in the Hokies’ streak, with the earlier meeting in Chapel Hill going into overtime and the other four decided by a total of 17 points. The margin of defeat matched the 76–64 loss to UConn for the largest this season.
“Our defense did get a little bit better,” Donarski said of UNC’s play after the first quarter. “But I think the biggest change was on the offensive end. We were able to clean things up from the first and second quarter and just try to continue to do that.”
UNC made one of its first nine shots, a Donarski 3-pointer, and had five turnovers in the first 7½ minutes to fall behind 11–3.
“Our shot selection probably wasn’t what we really wanted,” Donarski said. “Probably didn’t get into enough actions and movement to get better shots for us.”
After a Kelly jumper ended a more than six-minute scoring drought, the Hokies went on a 10–0 run and took a 21–5 lead into the second quarter.
“We dug ourselves a big hole,” Banghart said. “Imagine if you could just take away the first quarter, I think we’d like where’d we be, but we can’t.”
The previous worst first quarters were eight points against Vermont and Kansas State at the Gulf Coast Showcase in late November.
“I think we were beating ourselves early on,” Kelly said. “I think we were almost too anxious. I thought we didn’t value those possessions which mattered because they came out punching, and hit a couple of threes really early, and that really hurt us.”
UNC broke out of a 17-point hole in the second quarter when Amoore played one minute. Zelaya’s 3-pointer capped an 11–4 run to cut it to 10 with 7:06 left in the first half. A Kelly 3-pointer cut it to seven with 2:34 remaining, and her buzzer-beating 35-foot 3-pointer had the Hokies’ lead down to 33–27 by halftime.
Carolina couldn’t come any closer than five in the second half, and the Hokies expanded their lead to 13. Ustby got her third and fourth fouls in just over a two-minute stretch late in the third quarter, and Tech took a 57–47 lead into the fourth quarter.
UNC never got closer than 11 points in the final quarter, but trimmed a 19-point deficit to 12 by finishing the game on a 9–2 run.
NOTES — UNC plays its final regular-season road game at 7 p.m. Thursday against Boston College (ESPN3). The Eagles (11–18, 3–13) lost 79–55 at home Sunday to No. 19 Notre Dame. … If UNC wins both games next week, including the home finale against Duke, it likely is the No. 6 seed in the ACC tournament. If the Tar Heels split, they’d likely be a No. 8 seed and have to face Virginia Tech in the quarterfinals. … Carolina is 14–3 when Deja Kelly scores fewer than 20 points and 4–7 when she scores 20 or more. … Out again Sunday with lower-body injuries and unlikely to return soon were sophomore guard Paulina Paris (10th consecutive game) and freshman guard Reniya Kelly (fourth straight game). Neither Kelly nor Kayla McPherson (who is out for the season) made the trip to Blacksburg. Paris wasn’t in uniform but should be on track to return sooner than Reniya Kelly. … It was Deja Kelly’s eighth game with multiple 3-pointers this season. …Carolina leads the all-time series with the Hokies 21–16.
No. 8 Va. Tech 74, UNC 62
ACC standings
| Team | League | Overall |
|---|---|---|
| No. 11 Virginia Tech | 14–4 | 23–6 |
| No. 10 N.C. State | 13–5 | 25–5 |
| No. 20 Syracuse | 13–5 | 23–6 |
| No. 14 Notre Dame | 13–5 | 23–6 |
| No. 24 Louisville | 12–6 | 23–8 |
| Florida State | 12–6 | 21–9 |
| Duke | 11–7 | 19–10 |
| North Carolina | 11–7 | 19–11 |
| Miami | 8–10 | 18–11 |
| Georgia Tech | 7–11 | 16–14 |
| Virginia | 7–11 | 15–14 |
| Boston College | 5–13 | 13–18 |
| Clemson | 5–13 | 12–18 |
| Pittsburgh | 2–16 | 8–23 |
| Wake Forest | 2–16 | 6–24 |
Sunday’s games
North Carolina 63, Duke 59
Boston College 84, Pittsburgh 58
No. 10 N.C. State 75, Wake Forest 57
No. 14 Notre Dame 74, No. 24 Louisville 58
Georgia Tech 71, Miami 66, OT
Florida State 82, Clemson 79
Virginia 80, No. 11 Virginia Tech 75
ACC tournament
Greensboro Coliseum
Wednesday-Sunday
| Date | Day/month | Score | Opponent/event (current rank) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | ||||
| 8 | Wednesday | W, 102–49 | vs. Gardner-Webb | 1–0 |
| 12 | Sunday | W, 74–70 | vs. Davidson | 2–0 |
| 15 | Wednesday | W, 62–32 | vs. Hampton | 3–0 |
| 18 | Saturday | W, 68–39 | vs. Elon | 4–0 |
| Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Fla. | ||||
| 24 | Friday | W, 54–51 | Vermont | 5–0 |
| 25 | Saturday | L, 63–56 | No. 15 Kansas State | 5–1 |
| 26 | Sunday | L, 65–64 | Florida Gulf Coast | 5–2 |
| ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge | ||||
| 30 | Thursday | L, 65–58 | vs. No. 1 South Carolina | 5–3 |
| December | ||||
| 6 | Wednesday | W, 81–66 | vs. UNC Greensboro | 6–3 |
| Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase in Uncasville, Conn. | ||||
| 10 | Sunday | L, 76–64 | No. 10 Connecticut | 6–4 |
| ——————— | ||||
| 15 | Friday | W, 96–36 | vs. Western Carolina | 7–4 |
| Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte | ||||
| 19 | Tuesday | W, 61–52 | No. 18 Oklahoma | 8–4 |
| ACC season | ||||
| 31 | Sunday | W, 82–76 | vs. Clemson | 9–4, 1–0 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 4 | Thursday | W, 75–51 | vs. No. 22 Syracuse | 10–4, 2–0 ACC |
| 7 | Sunday | W, 61–57 | at No. 9 Notre Dame | 11–4, 3–0 ACC |
| 11 | Thursday | L, 70–62 | at Florida State | 11–5, 3–1 ACC |
| 14 | Sunday | W, 81–68 | vs. Virginia | 12–5, 4–1 ACC |
| 18 | Thursday | W, 73–68 | at Georgia Tech | 13–5, 5–1 ACC |
| 21 | Sunday | W, 79–68 | vs. No. 23 Louisville | 14–5, 6–1 ACC |
| 25 | Thursday | W, 66–61 | vs. Miami | 15–5, 7–1 ACC |
| 28 | Sunday | L, 81–66 | at Virginia | 15–6, 7–2 ACC |
| February | ||||
| 1 | Thursday | L, 63–59 | at No. 11 N.C. State | 15–7, 7–3 ACC |
| 4 | Sunday | L, 70–61, OT | vs. No. 13 Virginia Tech | 15–8, 7–4 ACC |
| 11 | Sunday | L, 68–60, OT | at Duke | 15–9, 7–5 ACC |
| 15 | Thursday | W, 75–62 | vs. Pittsburgh | 16–9, 8–5 ACC |
| 18 | Sunday | W, 58–50 | at Wake Forest | 17–9, 9–5 ACC |
| 22 | Thursday | W, 80–70 | vs. No. 11 N.C. State | 18–9, 10–5 ACC |
| 25 | Sunday | L, 74–62 | at No. 13 Virginia Tech | 18–10, 10–6 ACC |
| 29 | Thursday | L, 78–74 | at Boston College | 18–11, 10–7 ACC |
| March | ||||
| 3 | Sunday | W, 63–59 | vs. Duke | 19–11, 11–7 ACC |
| ACC tournament Greensboro Coliseum | ||||
| 7 | Thursday | L, 60–59 | Second round: vs. Miami | 19–12 |
| NCAA tournament Columbia, S.C. | ||||
| 22 | Friday | W, 59–56 | First round: Michigan State | 20–12 |
| 24 | Sunday | L, 88–41 | Second round: No. 1 South Carolina | 20–13 |
Photos courtesy of UNC Athletics
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