By Bob Sutton

The defensive effort for the North Carolina women’s basketball team was fitting all the way through its ACC road opener Sunday afternoon.

The No. 17 Tar Heels were relentless in churning out a 69–60 victory against Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

Even though UNC (13–2, 1–1 ACC) managed to score only seven fourth-quarter points, it didn’t matter. By then, the tone had been fully established.

“I liked how we were defending,” Coach Courtney Banghart said. “They weren’t getting any look that they wanted in the fourth quarter. So I was using the clock and the time and trusting our defense even more so than our offense.”

Miami (11–2, 1–1) was stuck with a season-low point total. The Hurricanes’ previous low mark came in a 61–56 victory against Oregon State.

“This group really locked into communicating [on defense],” Banghart said. “I could hear them all throughout the game which mattered.”

There was enough offense for the Tar Heels, with Maria Gakdeng cranking out 14 of her 21 points in the first half. Alyssa Ustby had 17 points and 13 rebounds and Indya Nivar added 11 points. Gakdeng, who shot 7 of 11 from the field, pulled in a season-high 12 rebounds.

“Our group as a whole did a really good job at assessing the game in live time and continuing making Miami pay on the inside because they had no answer for Maria,” Ustby said. “Just really good all-around team offense to figure out where we needed to score.”

Gakdeng said she realized she had to be productive.

“Being relentless, always calling for the ball, knowing they were looking for me,” she said. “We practiced that. We make sure we work on post passes.”

The turnover count was most telling. Miami gave it up 15 times compared to Carolina’s season-low four.

That made up for the Tar Heels’ 6-for-29 shooting on 3-point attempts.

“Our guard play was a bit rusty coming out of the break, understandably,” Banghart said of the shooting. “Fortunately, they really took care of the basketball. If you’re not going to shoot well, there’s lots of ways to impact this game. … We didn’t shoot well enough at the perimeter spot, but we did other things well enough.”

Miami closed within 56–45 before Lanie Grant’s 3-pointer for North Carolina’s final field goal of the third quarter.

The contributions from Gakdeng and Ustby stood out the most.

“Each game has its own feel,” Banghart said. “This one will go down that we’ll really credit [Gakdeng and Ustby] for finding a way for us.”

Carolina built a 39–29 halftime lead. Miami’s nine first-half turnovers boosted the Tar Heels, who held a 17-point edge at one point.

The Hurricanes notched the final seven points of the half, holding North Carolina scoreless for the last three minutes. Banghart said the Tar Heels bolstered their defensive rebounding in the second half.

A potential trouble spot was foul trouble with starters Lexi Donarski with three and Ustby and Reniya Kelly with two each.

“I was worried about the foul trouble,” Banghart said. “Because when they’re not aggressive, we’re not good. I was a little worried about that. … It’s not great when you have so many of your guys that you lean on with a lot of experience in foul trouble. We like our bench. We trust them.”

By game’s end, no North Carolina player had accumulated more than three fouls. The Tar Heels used six players off the bench.

In the first half, Miami’s Haley Cavinder had 12 of her 19 points. Jasmyne Roberts also finished with 19 points for the Hurricanes, who shot 40.4% from the floor.

That was better than North Carolina’s 39.1% mark.

With two 3-pointers, Grant was the lone Tar Heel with more than one long-range basket.

Kelly was back in the starting lineup after missing the Dec. 21 matchup with Norfolk State because of a lower-body injury. She had five points.

NOTES — The Tar Heels won in Miami for the first time since 2015. … The Tar Heels and Hurricanes split two meetings last season, with North Carolina winning at home and Miami claiming an ACC Tournament second-round matchup. … North Carolina takes a three-game winning streak going into a three-game homestand vs. No. 3 Notre Dame (Jan. 5), No. 14 Duke (Jan. 9) and Boston College (Jan. 12).

Bob Sutton is a veteran ACC sports writer who is the former North Carolina Sportswriter of the Year and was the sports editor of the Burlington Times-News for 25 years.

No. 17 UNC 69, Miami 60

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 16 Louisville	2–0	12–3	14
N.C. State	2–0	9–4	28
Syracuse	1–0	11–1	41
Stanford	1–0	10–2	33
No. 20 Notre Dame	1–0	8–2	19
Virginia	1–0	9–3	30
Duke	1–0	6–6	32
Wake Forest	1–1	10–3	122
Virginia Tech	1–1	11–3	53
Clemson	1–1	8–4	47
Miami	1–1	7–4	48
No. 18 North Carolina	0–1	11–3	16
California	0–1	8–4	69
Pittsburgh	0–1	7–6	2270
SMU	0–1	6–6	155
Boston College	0–1	4–10	207
Florida State	0–2	5–9	127
Georgia Tech	0–2	4–9	128

* — Through Thursday games
Saturday’s games
No. 16 Louisville 89, No. 17 Tennessee 65
Virginia 88, Winthrop 53
Florida State 77, South Carolina State 36
Duke 76, Belmont 46
Sunday’s games
No. 18 North Carolina 93, Charleston Southern 74
Virginia Tech 79, Radford 47
N.C. State 68, Davidson 49
Kennesaw State at Miami, noon, ACCN Extra
Pittsburgh at Duquesne, 1 p.m., ESPN+
North Florida at Clemson, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Bellarmine at No. 20 Notre Dame, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Southern at SMU, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Oregon vs. Stanford in San Francisco, 6 p.m., ESPN
No. 19 USC vs. California in San Francisco, 8:30, ESPN
Monday’s game
Gardner-Webb at Wake Forest, 1 p.m., ACCN Extra
Sunday’s games
Wofford at Georgia Tech, noon, ACC Network
Stetson at Miami, 2 p.m., ACC Network
Clemson at Chicago State, 3 p.m.
Duke at Syracuse, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Cornell at Stanford, 4 p.m., ACCN Extra
Cal Poly at California, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Monday, Dec. 29, games
Pittsburgh at No. 20 Notre Dame, 6 p.m., ACCN
SMU at Virginia, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
No. 18 North Carolina at Boston College, 8 p.m., ACC Network

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. 4 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. 2 Texas	8–2
			———————————
7	Sunday	W, 82–40	vs. Boston Univ.	9–2
14	Sunday	L, 76–66, OT	vs. No. 16 Louisville	9–3, 0–1 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 84–34	vs. UNCW	10–3
21	Sunday	Noon	vs. Charleston Southern	ACCN Extra
29	Monday	8 p.m.	at Boston College	ACCN
	January
1	Thursday	Noon	vs. California	ACCN
4	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Stanford	ESPN
11	Sunday	1 p.m.	at No. 20 Notre Dame	ESPN
15	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Miami	ACCN Extra
18	Sunday	2 p.m.	at Florida State	The CW
22	Thursday	8 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
25	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	The CW
	February
2	Monday	6 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN2
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 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. 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