By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina’s defense has been one of the toughest in the country all season but met its match against undefeated Georgia Tech.
The No. 20 Jackets scored the most points against No. 14 UNC this season and had control all afternoon after falling behind 7–0, holding on for an 82–76 victory in an ACC opener Sunday.
The Jackets (11–0, 1–0 ACC) are off to the best start in school history. They snapped a six-game losing streak in Carmichael Arena with their first win in Chapel Hill in 13 seasons.
“We know to beat ranked teams, you have to be a good team, and you have to play well,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “We are a good team that didn’t play well, quite frankly.”
Carolina (10–2, 0–1) sliced a season-high 23-point deficit to seven with a 22–8 fourth-quarter run but could only come closer until the final seconds.
Center Maria Gakdeng had a big game with 21 points on 9 of 11 shooting and four rebounds, and UNC got productive games from guards Indya Nivar (16 points, 4 3-pointers), Reniya Kelly (15 points, 3 3-pointers) and Lexi Donarski (15 points, 4 3-pointers) but the Tar Heels couldn’t get enough stops.
Gakdeng got more assertive offensively after halftime with 13 second-half points.
“They were really physical all game,” Gakdeng said. “Me personally, I need to be more aggressive in the second half. That’s kind of where I started to score more, started to ask for the ball more.”
Banghart said she came into the game worried about Georgia Tech’s best three players — Tonie Morgan (23 points, 4 assists), Dani Carnegie (22 points, 4 assists, 2 steals) and Kara Dunn (13 points, 3 3-pointers) — its ability to attack inside and its offensive rebounding strength.
“The things that we were most worried about, they were able to do to us. They earned that one 100%,” Banghart said.
The Tar Heels came into the game fifth in the country in scoring defense at 49.5 points per game, but the Jackets topped that with 50 first-half points. Georgia Tech shot 51.7%, only the third opponent to shoot more than 40% against UNC.
“They made a lot of really contested shots,” Banghart said. “Others of them, we didn’t have the right coverage, or we didn’t defend it well enough. So, it’s a combination of both.”
The undersized Jackets dominated the boards 41–24 and rebounded 44.8% of their misses. Getting stops for UNC was tough enough without so many second chances.
“We were in position; they went over us,” said Banghart after her team was outrebounded for only the third time this season and rebounded only 22.2% of its misses. “We didn’t contain the dribble. When you don’t contain the dribble, you have to rotation rebound. We didn’t do a good job of that, just taking that extra step and being more physical. Instead, we turned our heads up and tried to go get it.”
Alyssa Ustby led UNC with eight rebounds and 10 assists, but was held to two points. She was 0 of 6 and went without a field goal for the first time since her only career scoreless performance on Feb. 4, 2021, as a freshman against Florida State.
“I think our pressure was really, really tough,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner said of her team’s defense on Ustby. “She didn’t see a lot of daylight to the basket. She’s really effective. She can put it on the floor and drive and scoop and do all that kind of stuff. And I think we just really did a good job keeping her away from that.”
In Carolina’s other loss this season, 69–58 to UConn in Greensboro on Nov. 15, Ustby scored three points.
“She didn’t shoot the ball enough,” Banghart said. “She didn’t shoot the ball well enough when she did. But it’s definitely not an issue of approach. That kid is as locked in as we’ll ever coach.”
UNC jumped to a 5–0 lead on a layup and 3-pointer from Donarski (with a Kelly steal in between) before Georgia Tech had their first possession. Georgia Tech charged back to take a nine-point lead, 26–17. The Jackets finished the quarter with a 20–5 run, outrebounding the Heels 13–5.
Morgan’s 3-pointer and layup gave the Jackets a 13-point lead with 4:37 left in the first half.
Dunn’s third 3-pointer of the first half with 42 seconds left gave Tech a 50–34 halftime lead with more points than five UNC opponents scored in entire games.
Two Carnegie jumpers and a Kayla Blackshear layup in a 12–1 run gave the Jackets a 23-point lead with 55 seconds left in the third quarter, UNC’s biggest deficit of the season. Tech took a 66–45 lead into the final quarter.
“We played with more aggression toward the end of the game in the fourth quarter,” Gakdeng said. “We knew we had to put pressure on the ball and try to turn the ball over. So that’s what we were trying to do.”
Nivar, who played most of the second half with four fouls before fouling out with seven seconds left, hit a jumper for UNC’s 11th consecutive point to slice Tech’s deficit to 10 with 5:44 left.
After the Jackets pushed their lead to 14, six straight UNC points cut the lead to eight on Grace Townsend’s steal and layup with 1:56 left.
“That run that we went on at the end, I felt like Grace led that at the forefront, with being aggressive on the ball, in which we just fed off that energy, and that really helped us towards the end,” Nivar said.
Two Nivar free throws cut the deficit to seven, 76–69, with 35.1 seconds left, but Georgia Tech made four consecutive free throw attempts. A Nivar steal and 3-pointer with 9.3 seconds left cut the lead to 7.
NOTES — UNC plays their final two non-conference games in the next week, facing Florida at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Jumpman Invitational and hosting Norfolk State at noon Saturday. The Gators (7–4), who beat Longwood at home 93–65 on Sunday, lost at home on Nov. 16 to Miami 83–78 and at Florida State 98–74 on Nov. 22, and won at Clemson 77–64 on Dec. 5. … Carolina’s previous biggest deficit was 21 points against UConn. … Georgia Tech snapped a two-game losing streak to UNC, which leads the series 61–22, including 29–8 in Chapel Hill. It was the Jackets’ first win in Carmichael since a 56–54 victory on Feb. 12, 2012. … Carolina is 3–3 in ACC openers and in ACC home openers under Banghart.
No. 25 Ga. Tech 82, No. 14 UNC 76
| Team | League | Overall | NET* |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 6 Louisville | 11–0 | 21–3 | 8 |
| No. 17 Duke | 11–0 | 16–6 | 14 |
| Syracuse | 8–3 | 18–4 | 39 |
| Virginia Tech | 8–3 | 18–5 | 42 |
| N.C. State | 8–3 | 15–7 | 28 |
| No. 25 North Carolina | 7–3 | 18–5 | 21 |
| Virginia | 7–4 | 15–7 | 38 |
| Clemson | 7–4 | 16–7 | 37 |
| Notre Dame | 6–5 | 14–8 | 31 |
| Georgia Tech | 5–6 | 10–13 | 93 |
| Stanford | 4–5 | 15–7 | 36 |
| California | 4–6 | 13–10 | 53 |
| Miami | 4–7 | 12–10 | 48 |
| Florida State | 2–8 | 7–15 | 110 |
| Wake Forest | 2–9 | 12–11 | 122 |
| SMU | 1–9 | 8–14 | 179 |
| Pittsburgh | 1–9 | 8–15 | 260 |
| Boston College | 0–11 | 4–20 | 247 |
* — Through Monday games
Sunday’s results
No. 17 Duke 80, Wake Forest 44
No. 6 Louisville 71, California 59
Virginia Tech 76, Virginia 64
Syracuse 65, Miami 60
Georgia Tech 70, Boston College 60
Notre Dame 78, Stanford 66
Clemson 77, Florida State 58
Monday’s game
No. 25 North Carolina 61, N.C. State 59
Thursday’s games
Syracuse at Boston College, 6 p.m.
Stanford at Pittsburgh, 6 p.m., ACCN Extra
Clemson at No. 25 North Carolina, 6 p.m., ACC Network
No. 17 Duke at No. 6 Louisville, 7 p.m., ESPN
Virginia Tech at Notre Dame, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Miami at Virginia, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
California at Georgia Tech, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
Wake Forest at SMU, 7:30, ACCN Extra
Florida State at N.C. State, 8 p.m., ACC Network
Sunday’s games
No. 6 Louisville at Syracuse, noon, ACCN Extra
N.C. State at Virginia Tech, noon, ACC Network
California at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. ACCN Extra
No. 25 North Carolina at Wake Forest, 2 p.m., ACC Network
SMU at No. 17 Duke, 2 p.m. The CW
Notre Dame at Virginia, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Miami at Florida State, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Stanford at Georgia Tech, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Boston College at Clemson, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
| Date | Day/month | Time | Opponent/event (current ranks) | TV/ record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | ||||
| 30 | Thursday | L, 91–82 | No. 3 South Carolina in Atlanta | Exhib. |
| November | ||||
| 3 | Monday | W, 90–42 | vs. N.C. Central | 1–0 |
| 6 | Thursday | W, 71–37 | vs. Elon | 2–0 |
| WBCA Challenge Las Vegas | ||||
| 13 | Thursday | L, 78–60 | vs. No. 2 UCLA | 2–1 |
| 15 | Saturday | W, 82–68 | vs. Fairfield | 3–1 |
| ——————————— | ||||
| 20 | Thursday | W, 85–50 | at N.C. A&T | 4–1 |
| 23 | Sunday | W, 94–48 | vs. UNCG | 5–1 |
| Cancun Challenge Cancun, Mexico | ||||
| 27 | Thursday | W, 83–48 | vs. South Dakota St. | 6–1 |
| 28 | Friday | W, 85–73 | vs. Kansas State | 7–1 |
| 29 | Saturday | W, 80–63 | vs. Columbia | 8–1 |
| December | ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge | |||
| 4 | Thursday | W, 79–64 | at No. 4 Texas | 8–2 |
| ——————————— | ||||
| 7 | Sunday | W, 82–40 | vs. Boston Univ. | 9–2 |
| 14 | Sunday | L, 76–66, OT | vs. No. 78 Louisville | 9–3, 0–1 ACC |
| 17 | Wednesday | W, 84–34 | vs. UNCW | 10–3 |
| 21 | Sunday | W, 93–74 | vs. Charleston Southern | 11–3 |
| 29 | Monday | W, 90–38 | at Boston College | 12–3, 1–1 ACC |
| January | ||||
| 1 | Thursday | W, 71–55 | vs. California | 13–3, 2–1 |
| 4 | Sunday | L, 77–71, OT | vs. Stanford | 13–4, 2–2 |
| 11 | Sunday | L, 73–50 | at Notre Dame | 13–5, 2–3 |
| 15 | Thursday | W, 73–62 | vs. Miami | 14–5, 3–3 |
| 18 | Sunday | W, 82–55 | at Florida State | 15–5, 4–3 |
| 22 | Thursday | W, 54–46 | at Georgia Tech | 16–5, 5–3 |
| 25 | Sunday | W, 77–71, OT | vs. Syracuse | 17–5, 6–3 |
| February | ||||
| 2 | Monday | W, 61–59 | at N.C. State | 18–5, 7–3 |
| 5 | Thursday | 7 p.m. | vs. Clemson | ACCN |
| 8 | Sunday | 2 p.m. | vs. Wake Forest | ACCN |
| 12 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. SMU | ACCN |
| 15 | Sunday | 1 p.m. | at No. 20 Duke | ABC |
| 19 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | at Virginia Tech | ACCN |
| 22 | Sunday | Noon | vs. Pittsburgh | ACCN |
| 26 | Thursday | 7 p.m. | at Virginia | ACCN Extra |
| March | ||||
| 1 | Sunday | Noon | vs. No. 20 Duke | ESPN |
| ACC tournament | ||||
| 4–8 | Wed.-Sun | Gas South Arena, Duluth, Ga. | ||
| NCAA tournament | ||||
| 20–24 | Fri.-Mon. | First, second rounds | ||
| 27–30 | Fri.-Mon. | Regionals Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif. | ||
| April | ||||
| 3, 5 | Fri., Sun | Final Four Phoenix |
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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