By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina has played its share of rock fights against tough defensive teams, and it may be thrown into another on Monday night.

The No. 3-seed and No. 12-ranked Tar Heels routinely win with tough defense but will face a No. 6-seed West Virginia at 7 p.m. Monday (ESPN2) also known for its defense in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Mountaineers (25–7) are 15th in the country in defensive scoring average (55.6 points per game), second in steals per game (13.8), third in turnovers forced per game (23.8), fourth in turnover margin (+8.1) and ninth in average victory margin (20.4).

Carolina (28–7) has won a few rock fights this season, notably its 53–46 overtime home victory Jan. 9 against No. 8 Duke. However, UNC coach Courtney Banghart also points to her team’s 79–75 victory at Louisville.

“I think it’s probably a little bit more similar to Louisville with some concepts of Syracuse,” Banghart said of West Virginia. “When they get into a full man[to-man], that’s a little bit more like Duke.”

Unlike the Blue Devils, the Mountaineers are more guard-oriented, starting five guards ranging from 5–6 (junior Jordan Harrison) to 5–10 (senior Kyah Watson).

“They’re smaller, so I think it’s more that our kids have had to navigate a variety of pressures, guard a variety of skill players,” Banghart said. “They have had to deal with a lot of different attacks. This is more guard trappy, guard backtap, so more like a Louisville.”

Indya Nivar, one of UNC’s best defenders, says West Virginia reminds her of Duke.

“They pressure in the full court man-to-man, but West Virginia, I feel like they’re a little bit different,” Nivar said. “They’re very sporadic in the way. We just don’t know what defense they’re going to do at which time. But I feel like teams in our conference have prepared us for this.”

Watson is ninth in the country with 3.2 steals per game, and JJ Quinerly is 10th with 1.5, which will make good offensive decisions important for the Tar Heels.

“We really have to take care of the ball this game, just limit the turnovers and try to score when we get to the quarter court,” sophomore UNC point guard Reniya Kelly said.

Lanie Grant, who, instead of finishing her final year of high school, is in college a year early and part of UNC’s March run, says that the Mountaineers’ dynamic guards will create challenges.

“Playing really good group defense, making them play in crowds, stuff like that [will be important],” Grant said. “Piggybacking, limiting turnovers in the backcourt. They press a lot, so just and playing under control.”

West Virginia boasts a formidable backcourt combination with Harrison and Quinerly, a 5–8 senior two-time Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, leads the Mountaineers, averaging 20.8 points, 3.1 assists and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 44.8% from the floor. She scored 27 points in Saturday’s 78–59 first-round victory over Columbia.

“We’ve definitely got to rev up the pressure for sure,” said Quinerly, who is third in program history in steals with 327. “They have a lot of girls that can do a lot of things — shoot, drive — so we have to stay locked in and pressure them, try to make them make mistakes.”

Dealing with guard combinations in the ACC, such as Ta’Niya Latson and O’Mariah Gordon at Florida State, Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo at Notre Dame and N.C. State’s trio of Aziaha James, Saniya Rivers and Zoe Brooks, should have UNC prepared for Monday’s challenge.

“You have really good guard play in March,” Banghart said. “You have really good guard play on ranked teams, and so they’re hard to guard. You’re going to have to be really good defensively both on the 1-v-1 and 2-v-2 all the way down to 5-v-5. Fortunately I give a lot of credit to our ACC counterparts I have had to play. I’ve had to prepare for elite guard play, I feel like all year, so it’s another opportunity to do so.”

In the 70–49 Saturday win against Oregon State, the Beavers wanted UNC to take perimeter shots, but ultimately, the Tar Heels made them pay for that approach in the third quarter. It will be a different dynamic against the shorter Mountaineers.

“It might not matter how well you shoot,” Banghart said. “It’s a high-risk/high-reward [situation]. If you handle their risk, you get a high reward. So, whether that’s post feeds, layups, beating pressure, free throws.”

West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg has watched UNC on video and seen the numbers. He knows that his team’s offense will be tough to come by on Monday.

“This is an elite defensive team in North Carolina; they’re extremely hard to score against,” Kellogg said. “Then they pose all sorts of problems on the offensive end just because they can spread it out. They’re very balanced. Lots of different kids, kids that come off the bench that can score. And they do it in multiple ways.”

NOTES — UNC is a win away from a Sweet 16 matchup in Birmingham on Friday with Duke, which advanced Sunday with a 59–53 home victory over Deja Kelly’s Oregon team. Kelly finished her college career with a team-high 20 points for the Ducks. … UNC is the underdog for the game, ranging from 3½ to 5½ points, depending on the sportsbook. … Carolina won the only previous meeting with West Virginia 95–56 in the James Madison Invitational championship game in Harrisonburg, Va., on Nov. 17, 2019. … 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. … Carolina seeks its 19th Sweet 16 appearance but first since 2022. … This is the 16th NCAA tournament appearance for West Virginia, which made its only Sweet 16 appearance in 1992. … Angel Gray and Aja Ellison will be on the ESPN2 call.

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. 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