By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina is better when Nyla Brooks is logging more minutes on the court than miles on the exercise bike, and when they can find the shooting range from outside the 3-point arc.

Neither happened for much of the game and the first 18 minutes had the Tar Heels upset. No. 11 UNC shook off that terrible first half to make it a 71–37 rout Thursday over Elon in Carmichael Arena despite going 4 of 26 from 3-point range.

“I think we were frustrated and pissed off with how we were playing offense,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “They turned a trigger there. We were better in the second half with our coverages. We had an athletic advantage, and we took advantage of it.”

A 24–3 run midway through the game flipped their fortunes after the Heels led by only five with two minutes left in the first half. The Tar Heels (2–0) held Elon to single digits for each of the final three quarters and held their fifth consecutive opponent under 50 points, matching the best under Banghart.

Five Tar Heels scored in double figures, led by an all-around effort from senior Indya Nivar (above), who also spearheaded the defensive surge. 

Nivar scored 13 points — with all six of her field goals coming on layups or inside buckets — grabbed seven rebounds, dished three assists and swiped six steals. Carolina scored 28 points off 27 turnovers and outscored Elon 23–1 in fast-break points.

Nivar said that the defensive intensity turned the game around.

“We knew we were kind of off today on the offensive end, so we relied heavily on our defense to get us going in transition,” said Nivar, who was a team-high +23. “We work in practice all the time on our defense, so just pressuring, creating turnovers, so we can have easy ones.”

She was a big part of it as the steals just kept coming.

“Attacking those lazy passes, being in the passing lanes, and just always being ready. You always have to be on your toes,” Nivar said.

Redshirt sophomore center Ciera Toomey (left), who collected eight points and a career-high 12 rebounds, said that Nivar makes a difference for the Tar Heels in so many ways.

“She’s done a great job of making a big jump vocally in practice and games, and she also leads by example,” Toomey said. “In the steals category, she plays with her hands active, and that makes us want to do that as well.”

Nivar knows that her versatility will be important because every game is different.

“I know I can contribute to a lot of things on the court, rebounding, steals, all that, but it’s going to be different game to game to what our team needs that night,” Nivar said. “So, I’m just willing to do whatever we need, always staying aggressive and leading in that way.”

Even with all of the good defensive numbers, Banghart didn’t sugarcoat the slow start, saying flatly that her team didn’t play well, especially her top players.

“The bench came in and really helped us, the young guys, which was great,” said Banghart, who places some of the blame for the poor perimeter shooting on poor execution: “We’re a better 3-point shooting team than that, in my opinion. But we didn’t do a great job of finding different shots when they weren’t falling.”

Harris (10 points; left) came out just 2:11 into the game and kept pedaling, except during timeouts, for the rest of the first half. She started the second half and played 14 minutes after halftime. 

Meanwhile, the perimeter shots kept clanging as UNC missed 20 of its first 21 3-point attempts. Freshman Nyla Brooks (10 points,team-high 4 assists) accounted for two of UNC’s four 3-pointers and four of the Tar Heels’ 19 steals.

The first half was plagued by stagnant ball movement and some late-clock heaves.

“We’re not going to like the pace of our passing when we watch it back. We had a lot of late shot-clock shots,” Banghart said, adding that Elon’s scrappy defense and constant switching disrupted her team’s rhythm: “I don’t think our posts played as well as they needed to. They were kind of in la-la land at times.”

Just as with Monday’s opening-game win over N.C. Central, guard Reniya Kelly started but played limited minutes (five in the opener and 10 Thursday), wearing a heavy wrap over the right knee she injured last season. She got in a significant amount of time on the exercise bike before the game and went scoreless, missing all three shots.

Sophomore Lanie Grant (11 points), who missed the opener after turning her ankle in practice, was back and started, but sophomore center Blanca Thomas was again out of uniform.

With Thomas out and Harris limited to 15 minutes, the shift for Toomey from stretch four to post player was even more pronounced. Toomey said the adjustment has been significant.

“This year, it’s more about reliability than availability,” said Toomey, who has battled through knee injuries. “I knew going into this season that I needed to make that jump. I really haven’t been a post in my life before, so I knew I needed to get a lot of reps at that.”

Toomey, who said strength work has paid off and played a huge role, acknowledged the mental shift required when Harris sat.

“There’s obviously more pressure to post, and I have to be the five,” Toomey said. “I have to make that mental switch where that is my job.”

UNC can only hope to be back at full health before the competition gets significantly tougher next week. The Tar Heels head to Las Vegas for the WBCA Challenge to face No. 3 UCLA (2–0), which comes off a Final Four season, at 9 p.m. Thursday (ESPN2).

“We know the opponents will continue to get stronger and stronger,” Banghart said. “There’s an experience that comes from playing basketball games that you can’t get any other way.”

The Tar Heels made only 2 of their first 10 shots and trailed 8–7 early, and settled too often for failed 3-point attempts.

“I think we looked across the way and thought, well, we’ll probably win this one, so be a little bit less sharp,” Banghart said.

A Nivar steal and layup with 3:54 left in the first quarter gave UNC its first lead. After Carolina missing its first seven 3-point attempts, Brooks (left) made one with a minute left. Carolina led 16–12 after the first quarter, with more than half its shots coming from outside the arc and only one falling (1 of 8).

A Toomey steal led to a Nivar layup to cap a 7–0 Tar Heels run to give them a nine-point lead, 29–20, at halftime. UNC pushed the lead to 14 on a transition Nivar layup with 6:09 left in the third quarter. Carolina led 52–29 after three quarters and kept rolling from there.

“We turned the ball over too many times in the second half, which afforded them easy transition buckets,” Elon coach Charlotte Smith said. “We did a much better job of boxing out in the first half than we did in the second half.”

Elon lost its best player, sophomore guard Jayda Angel, a preseason All-CAA First Team pick, to a non-contact right knee injury early in the second quarter. She had to be carried off the court. Smith said she didn’t know the extent of the injury.

She scored only two points, and UNC outscored Elon 49–17 after she left the game.

“I think just the emotional toll of losing Jada — that’s our CAA All-Conference selection that went down — and just dealing with that. When things got tough, we have to do a better job of staying together,” Smith said.

LaNae’ Corbett led Elon with 10 points and six rebounds.

NOTES — UCLA (2–0) won a pair of home games this week, beating San Diego State 77–53 on Monday and UC Santa Barbara 87–50 on Thursday. The Bruins take on Oklahoma in Sacramento at 10:30 p.m. Monday (FS1) before facing UNC in Las Vegas next Thursday. In Carolina’s second WBCA Challenge game, the Heels meet Fairfield at 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15 (ESPN+). … UNC guard Elina Aarnisalo (2 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists), a UCLA transfer, came off the bench after starting against N.C. Central. … Banghart said that Thomas’ injury isn’t a long-term situation and says she is making progress. … In addition to opening next season against Oklahoma in Paris on Nov. 2, UNC will meet South Carolina in the Ally Tipoff in Charlotte, with the date yet to be set. N.C. State will face Kentucky in the other Charlotte game. … UNC has won 12 straight meetings with Elon and leads the series 13–2. … Carolina has 30 straight games against unranked nonconference opponents.

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No. 11 UNC 71, Elon 37

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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

Photos by Joshua Lawton