“She’s just good at finishing around the basket and her teammates know how to pass her the ball down low,” Mavunga said. “The refs called a lot of fouls. She scored on me nine points off of free throw attempts, she also missed a lot of free throws. That also helped.”
The raucous Carmichael Arena crowd agreed – passionately disputing many fouls throughout the game – as the Irish went to the line 30 times.
And after finishing with four fouls herself, Mavunga “most definitely” felt that Notre Dame benefitted from the whistle.
“You just gotta push them under the basket, but then when you do that the refs wanna call a foul,” she said, after Turner finished with 16 free throw attempts. “Just because we’re so aggressive, that’s another thing that the refs were calling. But then at the same time they’re aggressive, so I feel like it should go both ways.
“Of course it’s gonna be frustrating, especially if you don’t think it was really a foul call.”
Despite the Tar Heels’ disputes regarding questionable calls, Coach Sylvia Hatchell knows that officiating is no excuse for the result.
“You’ve got to be as tough and physical as you’re allowed to be,” she said. “We weren’t as tough as we needed to be.”
Without the Preseason All-ACC forward Xylina McDaniel, who is out indefinitely with a lower leg injury, North Carolina simply didn’t have enough post presence to deter the Notre Dame onslaught.
“(Xylina) was a force in there, she’d put you on the 10th floor of the bleachers and look at you,” Hatchell said. “I’m not going to make excuses, but her presence would definitely — with how physical she is ... have made a big difference.”
The Fighting Irish abused the paint all night long, forcing the ball inside against the Tar Heels’ four-guard lineup.
“They beat us with old-timey basketball,” Hatchell said. “High-low feed and the pick and roll. And they were successful with it.”
sports@dailytarheel.com
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