By R.L. Bynum

GREENSBORO — A long field-goal drought. A blown lead. Poor late-game execution. Starters playing a lot of minutes because of a lack of depth. Head-scratching officiating. The common issues in many games this season made North Carolina’s stay in the ACC women’s basketball tournament a short one.

Depleted No. 8-seed UNC, which led by 14 points late in the first half, shot 23.3% in the second half and couldn’t keep No. 9-seed Miami off the offensive boards down the stretch. Miami survived the chaotic final few minutes to earn a 60–59 victory in the second round of the ACC tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Carolina (19–12) will get at least two weeks to rest and heal before playing its first NCAA tournament game.

“They played with a lot of urgency,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said of Miami. “They were able to really hurt us on the glass.”

Miami (19–11), which meets top-seed Virginia Tech in Friday’s quarterfinals, outrebounded UNC 24–15 in the second half, with seven offensive rebounds.

“I thought we did a good job with their initial attack,” Banghart said. “But couldn’t get their second attack. And then couldn’t make enough plays offensively. Couldn’t make enough shots, couldn’t make our teammates better when we didn’t make our shots.”

Alyssa Ustby (15 points, four rebounds, four assists) and Lexi Donarski (12 points, four rebounds, two assists) both played 40 minutes and Deja Kelly (15 points and a season-high nine rebounds) played 39.

“It’s frustrating,” Kelly said. “I feel like there’s been a number of games like this that we’ve been in this year. The only thing we can really do is learn from it. But we just have to get out of that same cycle. I feel like, once again in this game, everything that could have gone our way in those last 30 seconds did, and we just couldn’t capitalize.”

The big surprise was that Kelly, the nation’s leader in free-throw attempts coming into the game, only went to the line once, which was all part of Miami coach Katie Meier’s plan.

“Our goal was to keep Deja Kelly off the free-throw line,” Meier said. “And this is enormous that she only had one free throw. It’s enormous.”

Certainly, the Hurricanes’ defense was a big part of why that happened. But the officials just weren’t making calls when Kelly drove into contact.

Already fined this season for criticizing the officiating, Banghart’s muted response to a question about that suggested that she thought the officiating was a factor.

“Well, I’m not taking another fine,” Banghart said, while urging a similar response from Kelly. “She’s really good at attacking hips. She’s really good if you squeeze because she can get into her pull-up. You have to close the space, which gives her the advantage to attack hips. I don’t think Deja played any differently on her point of attack, and I think probably I should leave it there.”

It was the first time this season that Kelly has attempted only one free throw against an ACC team and only the third with three or fewer.

“I don’t think it was anything different,” Kelly said. “I thought that I just — through whatever contact — had to finish when I went to the basket.”

Kelly came out of a game for the first time in eight halves for 82 seconds after picking up her second and third fouls 19 seconds apart midway through the third quarter.

Carolina had a few chances to win it in the final hectic minutes despite going six fourth-quarter minutes without a field goal, the last when Kelly drove into a double-team from Miami’s Jaida Patrick and Ja’Leah Williams (top photo and below photo) and couldn’t get off a shot in the lane as time expired.

Could the referees have called a foul on the play? Sure. It looked like a clean defensive play, though. The game was officiated, you couldn’t have expected a call there.

“I don’t think it was necessarily that something wasn’t working,” Ustby said of the offensive failures down the stretch. “I felt like we had really good shots, and we had the right people taking the right looks, and sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in.”

Donarski hit a pair of free throws after a Lazaria Spearman technical foul. Kelly’s bucket on a drive sliced the deficit that has been five to one with 1:54 left. After Kelly hit the underside of the backboard on a baseline drive with 1:05 remaining, Williams walked with 24.4 seconds left.

Probably UNC’s best chance to win came when Donarski came off an elevator screen, but Miami’s Jaida Patrick intercepted a Donarski pass intended for Gakdeng with 16.3 seconds left. Donarski passed when the screen didn’t create an open shot for her.

“I didn’t think I had a shot,” Donarski said. “I didn’t make the right read. I want to watch it back and see what was there, but I made the wrong decision.”

Kelly passed to an open Donarski coming off the screen.

“Her decision was to throw it in the post,” Banghart said. “That wasn’t a play that I would say would be in the category of a good decision based on the outcome.”

Spearman missed both free-throw attempts with 14.9 seconds left and Donarski rebounded it.

Anya Poole drew an offensive foul for an illegal screen with 7.9 seconds left, but Williams gave it right back to UNC on a travel with seven seconds left before the final play.

UNC went from shooting 50% from the floor and 3 of 10 from 3-point range in the first half to 23.3% and 2 of 11 from outside the arc in the second half.

“I thought we got good looks in both halves,” Donarski said. “We didn’t finish as well as we wanted to in the second half. Our open looks from 3 didn’t fall, either. I think we got the shots that we wanted, and they just didn’t fall.”

Banghart joked that it was the rims UNC shot on in the second half because Miami shot 34.3% on them in the first half.

“The layups and the missed 3 and things,” said Banghart, explaining the second-half dropoff in shooting percentage. “I thought they were good shots. Lexi took a wide-open 3, missed it, and then we gave up an and-one on the other end for a six-point swing. They all are guilty of that, not making shots they need to make. That’s what it comes down to in March, guys. You have to make plays within your skill set.”

Poole started and collected six points, three rebounds and three assists in 16 first-half minutes but played only five second-half minutes, as Banghart went more to senior center Ali Zelaya, who was 0 of 3, all from outside the arc.

“Trying to get a little bit more spacing so Alyssa could have more space to work inside,” Banghart said of the change. “We’ve got a lot of posts, don’t have quite as many guards right now, so we have to mix and match and play accordingly.”

Gakdeng (eight points, four rebounds) battled foul trouble, picking up her fourth foul with 5:20 left in the third period.

UNC jumped to an eight-point lead in the first 5½ minutes on a 14–4 run sandwiched by 3-pointers from Kelly and Donarski. A Lashae Dwyer layup pulled Miami within two, but Poole’s jumper gave the Heels a 20–13 lead after one quarter.

Kelly’s 3-pointer and an Ustby layup at the end of an 11–2 run four minutes into the second quarter pushed UNC’s lead to 14. Miami cut its deficit to 37–30 by halftime on Williams’ nearly half-court 3-pointer at the buzzer and sliced it to four on Latasha Lattimore’s 3-pointer in the first 14 seconds of the second half.

Ustby’s jumper put the UNC lead at eight before Spearman’s layup in a 6–0 run sliced its deficit to two with 4:13 left in the third quarter.

Former Duke player Shayeann Day-Wilson, who led Miami with 13 points, made five free throws during a 9–1 run to tie it with 1:03 left in the third quarter before Kelly’s layup gave the Heels a 47–45 lead after three quarters.

Ustby’s jumper put UNC up by eight before Spearman’s layup in a 6–0 run sliced its deficit to two with 4:13 left in the third quarter.

Spearman tied it on a follow shot and gave Miami a two-point lead on an inside bucket with 2:40 left during another 9–1 Miami run. Lattimore’s follow shot and three-point play with 2:04 left gave the Canes a five-point lead during a six-minute UNC field-goal drought.

Spearman had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for Miami.

NOTES — It was UNC’s sixth loss by four points or fewer or in overtime. … Carolina is 1–6 in the Greensboro Coliseum under Banghart, with the only win against Clemson in last season’s ACC tournament. The only loss outside of that event was a NCAA Sweet 16 defeat against South Carolina in 2022. … Former UNC forward Destiny Adams finished her first season at Rutgers with 31 points and a career-high 24 rebounds in a 77–69 loss to Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. She set the tournament single-game rebounding record. … Carolina legend Ivory Latta beat fellow ACC Network analyst Kelly Gramlich, a former Clemson star, in a 30-second 3-point shooting contest at halftime of the Duke-Georgia Tech game (above video). … Paulina Paris was again out of uniform and missed her ninth consecutive game. … Carolina leads the all-time series with Miami 16–14, with the Hurricanes getting their first win in three ACC tournament meetings with the Tar Heels, who won 64–57 in the 2005 quarterfinals and 83–57 in the 2011 semifinals.

Miami 60, UNC 59

ACC tournament

Greensboro Coliseum
Wednesday’s first-round results
No. 13 seed Boston College 85, No. 12 seed Clemson 72
No. 10 seed Georgia Tech 73, No. 15 seed Pittsburgh 60
No. 14 seed Wake Forest 58, No. 11 seed Virginia 55
Thursday’s second-round results
No. 5 seed Louisville 58, Boston College 55
No. 9 seed Miami 60, No. 8 seed North Carolina 59
No. 7 seed Duke 70, Georgia Tech 58
No. 6 seed Florida State 70, Wake Forest 53
Friday’s quarterfinals
No. 4 seed Notre Dame 77, Louisville 68
No. 1 seed Virginia Tech 55, Miami 47
No. 2 seed N.C. State 54, Duke 51
Florida State 78, No. 3 seed Syracuse 65
Saturday’s semifinals
Notre Dame 82, Virginia Tech 53
N.C. State 69, Florida State 43
Sunday’s championship
Notre Dame 55, N.C. State 51

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