By R.L. Bynum

GREENSBORO — North Carolina will challenge some of the best women’s teams in the country when the 3-point shots fall and roll against many others.

In desperate need of a good shooting night to stay with No. 2 UConn, it didn’t happen until it was too late for the No. 14 Tar Heels, who couldn’t stop sensational redshirt senior Paige Bueckers, and had rough performances from some veterans.

Bueckers poured in 29 points in a 69–58 Huskies win Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex for their seventh consecutive win over UNC.

“She’s a hard matchup,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said of Bueckers, calling it a pleasure to watch her brilliance. “Made a lot of contested shots; made a lot of her teammates better. I wish we had played better, quite honestly, but it’s game four, a game that should have happened in December didn’t. A lot of takeaways that we’ll continue to pound get this group better.”

Carolina was 4 of 19 from 3-point range in the first three quarters before making 3 of 5 fourth-quarter attempts.

The big positives for Carolina (3–1) on a frustrating night were the performances of junior guard Indya Nivar, with 15 points and nine rebounds starting in her season debut, and redshirt freshman forward Ciera Toomey with 10 points.

“She’s a really dynamic athlete who’s just gotten better and better, and she’ll continue to be a real bright spot for us as she’s gotten healthy and ready to roll,” Banghart said of Nivar.

Nivar came out hot, scoring seven of her 11 first-half points in the first five minutes. She had two steals and two blocks but also a couple of mistakes on some aggressive passes, and had four turnovers.

“I was just super-excited to get back to my team, get back playing with them,” said Nivar, who wouldn’t say when asked whether she was 100% health-wise. “I know I put in a lot of work in the offseason, so I was just excited to show everybody what I’ve been working on.”

Toomey, who scored a pair of 3-pointers, seemed to play with more confidence against UConn.

“She’s got a really bright future; she’s competitive, she really wants to learn. She’s got a great skill set, so she just gets better and better,” Banghart said, adding that the play-call sheet is slim when Toomey is in the game so that she isn’t overloaded with information.

Alyssa Ustby (3 points, 7 rebounds) and Lexi Donarski (5 points), two fifth-year players Carolina depends on, and senior Maria Gakdeng (2 points, 2 rebounds) struggled to give UNC much offensively.

“The fact that our seniors didn’t play well doesn’t mean they didn’t play hard. There’s a difference,” Banghart said. “But, quite honestly, they need to be responsible for the way they performed. They didn’t perform at the level we need them to perform. They know that. I reminded them of that, in case they weren’t paying attention to that.”

Foul trouble hamstrung Donarski, who only played one minute in the second quarter. Ustby — who had to match up with 6–2 freshman forward Sarah Strong at times — committed four turnovers for the second consecutive game.

But unlike last season, Banghart has plenty of bench options when leaders aren’t playing well. Ustby sat for more than 8½ second-half minutes.

“That should be a good equation,” Banghart said. “It’s a lot of good, experienced players that you can lean on, Indya being one of them, and then inexperienced guys who will continue to gain experience as the season goes on.

“You don’t get better in life without a little adversity, but you only either get better or worse,” Banghart said. “There’s no staying the same. … Our older guys, they’ve got to make an adjustment to play better, not harder, better.”

In a return to her home state, Strong — who had UNC among the final three schools she was considering — was impressive with 14 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and five blocks.

After a sloppy start with seven first-quarter turnovers, UNC only committed eight in the last three periods. Carolina came within striking distance when it went to a zone, which threw the Huskies’ offense and limited Bueckers to four fourth-quarter points. But it was not enough against UConn (3–0).

UNC pulled within nine points with 7:03 left in the game but only scored one field goal after that, going scoreless for 5½ minutes

“I feel like we just didn’t take advantage of the opportunities we had,” Nivar said. “We had some [mistakes] on defense, or we didn’t hit the shots that we usually make. And I feel like those possessions are very valuable in those moments because you really need them when you’re fighting back.”

Nivar made her first three shots, including a steal and a layup, scoring seven of UNC’s first nine and tied it 9–9 on a 3-pointer with 5:41 left in the first quarter. But the Huskies took control with a 22–4 run midway through the first half to go up 36–16 with 4:57 left in the first half after leading 25–14 through one quarter.

Donarski picked up her third foul midway through the period. Reniya Kelly’s 3-pointer with 55 seconds left finished an 8–0 first-half-ending UNC run to slice the lead to 12, 38–26.

After a Strong layup pushed UConn’s lead to 17, a 6–2 UNC run pulled the Heels within 13. But an Ashlynn Shade 3-pointer put the Huskies up 18. A Donarski 3-pointer cut UConn’s lead to 58–42 by the end of the third quarter.

Three-pointers from Toomey and Laila Hull sparked a 10–3 run to start the final quarter to pull UNC within nine, 61–52, on a Nivar layup, but the Heels came no closer after that despite UConn going scoreless for four minutes.

“We cannot leave so many possessions where we just didn’t make the right decision,” Banghart said.

NOTES — UNC gets over a week off before playing Ball State at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island in the Bahamas, with two more games after that. The Cardinals (3–0), who have won home games against Old Dominion (60–46), IU Indy (89–63) and Memphis (95–66), visit Northern Iowa at 3 p.m. Saturday (ESPN+). … It was UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s 1,216th career win, tying retired Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer for the most in Division I history. … That was the fewest points for Ustby since scoring three on Nov. 26, 2023, against Florida Gulf Coast. … UNC had only eight assists on 21 field goals. … Gakdeng was back after missing the A&T game and started to give UNC its third starting lineup in four games. For the second game in a row, fifth-year guard Grace Townsend came off the bench. … A fan was escorted out of the arena after a fight broke out at halftime. … UConn leads the series 9–5. The Tar Heels haven’t beaten the Huskies since they were No. 2 and beat No. 6 UConn 82–76 in Carmichael Arena on Jan. 15, 2007. … Banghart, who is one win away from her 100th victory at UNC, fell to 1–7 at the arena now called First Horizon Coliseum.

No. 2 UConn 69, No. 14 UNC 58

UNC scores, schedule

Date	Day/month	Time/ score	Opponent/event (current rank)	TV/ record
	November
4	Monday	W, 83–53	vs. Charleston Southern	1–0
7	Thursday	W, 77–50	vs. UNCW	2–0
12	Tuesday	W, 66–47	at N.C. A&T	3–0
15	Friday	L, 69–58	vs. No. 2 UConn in Greensboro	3–1
			Battle 4 Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas
23	Saturday	4 p.m.	Ball State	FloHoops
24	Sunday	1:30 or 6:30	Texas A&M or Villanova	FloHoops
25	Monday	Noon, 2:30, 5 p.m. or 7:30	No. 17 Baylor, Indiana, Columbia or S. Miss	ESPN2, ESPNU or FloHoops
			———————————
29	Friday	2 p.m.	vs. N.C. Central	ESPN3
	December
			ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge
5	Thursday	5 p.m.	vs. No. 20 Kentucky	ESPN2
			———————————
8	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Coppin State	ESPN3
11	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. UNCG	ESPN3
15	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Georgia Tech	ACCN
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
18	Wednesday	6:30	vs. Florida	ESPNU
			———————————
21	Saturday	Noon	vs. Norfolk State	ESPN3
			ACC season
29	Sunday	4 p.m.	at Miami	ACCN
	January
5	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. No. 6 Notre Dame	ESPN
9	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 16 Duke	TBA
12	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Boston College	ACCN
16	Thursday	8 p.m. ET	at SMU	ESPN3
19	Sunday	2 p.m.	at Pitt	ACCN
23	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ESPN3
26	Sunday	Noon	vs. Florida State	ACCN
30	Thursday	TBA	at Cal	ESPN3
	February
2	Sunday	3 p.m. ET	at Stanford	The CW
9	Sunday	2 p.m.	at Clemson	ESPN3
13	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN3
16	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. No. 13 N.C. State	ESPN
20	Thursday	6 p.m.	at Syracuse	ACCN
23	Sunday	2 p.m.	at No. 18 Louisville	ESPN
27	Thursday	7 p.m.	at No. 16 Duke	ESPN
	March
2	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Virginia	The CW
5–9	Wed.–Sun.		ACC tournament First Horizon Coliseum Greensboro