By R.L. Bynum
CHAPEL HILL — If there was ever any chance that Oregon State could pull the upset, graduate UNC guard Lexi Donarski shot them down — repeatedly — on a day that Alyssa Ustby became the program’s all-time leading rebounder.
Donarski was the catalyst in delivering a third-quarter knockout with five 3-pointers as the No. 3-seed Tar Heels turned a two-point halftime lead into a thumping and coasted to a 70–49 victory over the No. 14-seed Beavers in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Carmichael Arena.
“It was a little rusty coming off of two weeks without a game, but we really got to find our rhythm and show the progress we’ve made in the second half,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said, “with being crisper, moving it better, shooting it with better pace and rhythm.”
Carolina advanced to a second-round game at 7 p.m. Monday (ESPN2) against No. 6-seed West Virginia (25–7), which rolled to a 78–59 victory over No. 11 Columbia in Saturday’s first game.
It was a triumphant return to her home court for Ustby, who couldn’t play on senior day because she was recovering from surgery to repair a tear in the medial meniscus in her left knee.
Ustby, who had the same injury on her right knee two years earlier, pulled down a team-high nine rebounds for a program-best 1,252, putting away the record by rebounding a miss and scoring with 5:28 left. She also is the only player in program history with a triple-double.
“I think it’s taken a lot of perseverance to get to this moment because that’s not a goal that I set out to reach right when I got on campus,” said Ustby, who had 20 members of her extended family among the crowd of 5,362. “It was just really cool to see a lot of people just cheering and kind of being in that moment with me. Ultimately, I was focused on making sure we came out with a win even though we were up quite a bit at that point.”
Banghart held off the press until the second half because she didn’t want Oregon State (19–16) to game-plan against it at halftime. When she unleashed it in the third quarter, it produced 10 points off six turnovers, leaving the Beavers all out of sorts.
“Being able to come out and force turnovers, those, of course, count as paint scores in transition,” said Banghart, whose team won the paint points battle against the taller Beavers 40–16, thanks to 22 points off 17 turnovers. “But we were able to spread them out just enough to get some 1v1 for Maria in the paint. We didn’t want them to just load to the ball and be tall. We were able to move them a bit, which gave us some paint advantages.”
Donarski scored 17 of her 19 points and all five of her 3-pointers in the third quarter, when UNC took control with runs of 18–1 and 13–3. She made all of those jumpers but deflected credit to the Tar Heels’ defense.
“We pressured them and were able to turn them over,” said Donarski, who tied her best 3-point output as a Tar Heel. “I feel like over half of our steals that we had in this game had to have come from that third quarter. Just pushing pace offensively through our defense. The majority of those looks were in transition.”
The first-half struggles that led to only 29 points for No. 12-ranked UNC were quickly forgotten. The Tar Heels scored 31 points in the third quarter and made 6 of 8 3-point attempts after going 1 of 8 in the first half.
Maria Gakdeng (13 points, 5 rebounds) scored seven points in a 9–2 UNC run to give the Heels an eight-point lead, and they had a 15–9 advantage after one quarter. She picked up her second foul late in the period, though.
Instead of going to 6–5 Blanca Thomas or 6–4 Ciera Toomey at the five spot with Gakdeng on the bench, it was Ustby contending with 6–7 Oregon State center Sela Heide and giving up five inches in the matchup for half of the first half.
Typical of Ustby, she said she was excited about the challenge.
“I want to bump around with girls that are much taller than me,” said Ustby, who had 10 points, with her four assists pushing her over 400 for her career. “I stuck to what I knew my strengths were, which is just rooting out my post player as long as I could and just keeping her from moving. So literally just arm-battling with her.”
Why go to Ustby at the five with two tall post players available?
“They were really small outside of that one kid,” Banghart said. “We wanted to make sure that we had a little bit more movement on the offensive end. You have two choices. You either match them, or you opposite them. We just chose to opposite them because that matchup didn’t worry me. Letting Alyssa play the five? No problem.”
Oregon State opened the second quarter on an 11–2 run — while Gakdeng was on the bench — to take a three-point lead on an AJ Marotte 3-pointer. Lanie Grant’s 3-pointer two minutes later began a 7–2 first-half ending run as UNC took a 26–24 lead on Reniya Kelly’s jumper with eight seconds left.
Freshman guard Jordan Zubich’s eight first-half minutes were more than she got in any game since playing 8½ minutes against N.C. Central on Nov. 29. She scored on a drive for her first points since Jan. 19 against Pittsburgh and played 11 solid minutes, her most since the season opener.
“We’ve been able to assess her play minute-to-minute through every practice all year, and her trajectory has continued to rise,” Banghart said. “She’s continued to add some skill. She’s continued to understand pace and tempo.”
After UNC scored the last four first-half points, Donarski personally extended the run to 18–1 with four 3-pointers and a steal she converted into a layup to put the Heels up 40–24.
Oregon State went nearly six minutes without a field goal before a Kelsey Rees 3-pointer with 4:38 left in the third quarter, but two Gakdeng layups started a 13–3 run to go up 22 on two Indya Nivar layups. Grant’s 3-pointer with six seconds left gave UNC a 56–33 lead. The Heels went from 29 first-half points to 30 third-quarter points.
The lead peaked at 25 points on Tray Crisp’s layup to open the fourth quarter as the starters combined for only 18 minutes in the final period, with everybody on the active roster playing.
NOTES — Carolina’s 21-point victory is its largest NCAA tournament win since defeating UT Martin 90–58 in the first round of the Stanford Region on March 3, 2014. It also set the largest victory margin for Banghart at UNC in the NCAA tournament. … It was the first time in the Banghart era that the Tar Heels surpassed 70 points in an NCAA tournament game since March 19, 2022, against
Stephen F. Austin. … UNC’s 30 field goals were the most in an NCAA tournament under Banghart, surpassing 27 against Ohio State on March 20, 2023. … This is the 13th time UNC has hosted NCAA tournament games, but the first time since 2015. … Carolina is in the second round for the fourth consecutive season. … UNC evened the series with Oregon State 2–2 with its first win over the Beavers since an 82–78 victory at Grand Bahama Island on Nov. 29, 2009, in the Junkanoo Jam. … UNC and West Virginia both beat Pittsburgh, their only common opponent. The Mountaineers won 82–54 at home on Nov. 12 and the Tar Heels won 75–58 at Pittsburgh on Jan. 19. … In its 32nd NCAA tournament appearance, UNC is 53–30 in tournament play and one of seven schools to make the field at least 32 times. … During the first game, Oregon State’s band put on blue Columbia T-shirts and played since Columbia’s band didn’t travel to Chapel Hill.
No. 3 UNC 70, No. 14 Oregon State 49
Birmingham Regional 2
Thursday’s First Four result
No. 11 Columbia 63, No. 11 Washington 60
First round
Friday’s results
Columbia, S.C.
No. 9 Indiana 76, No. 8 Utah 68
No. 1 South Carolina 108, No. 16 Tennessee Tech 48
Durham
No. 10 Oregon 77, No. 7 Vanderbilt 73, OT
No. 2 Duke 86, No. 15 Lehigh 25
Saturday’s results
College Park, Md.
No. 5 Alabama 81, No. 12 Green Bay 67
No. 4 Maryland 82, No. 13 Norfolk St. 69
Chapel Hill
No. 6 West Virginia 78, No. 11 Columbia 59
No. 3 North Carolina 70, No. 14 Oregon St. 49
Second round
Sunday’s results
Durham
No. 2 Duke 59, No. 10 Oregon 53
Columbia, S.C.
No. 1 South Carolina 64, vs. No. 9 Indiana 53
Monday’s games
College Park, Md.
No. 4 Maryland 111, No. 5 Alabama 108, 2 OTs
Chapel Hill
No. 3 North Carolina 58, No. 6 West Virginia 47
Birmingham, Ala.
Friday’s regional semifinals
No. 2 Duke (28–7) vs. No. 3 North Carolina (29–7), 2:30, ESPN
No. 1 South Carolina (32–3) vs. No. 4 Maryland (25–7), 5 p.m., ESPN
Sunday’s regional championship
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m., ABC
| 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 | 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 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 |
Top photo via @MarchMadnessWBB; Donarski photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
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