GREENSBORO — Trailing by 14 at halftime, the third-seeded North Carolina women’s basketball team needed a jolt to beat No. 2
Maryland.
And out of the blue — “shipped in from Mars” if you’d ask coach Sylvia Hatchell — came Latifah Coleman, scoring all of her career-high 17 points in the second half to beat Maryland 72-65.
The win represented the second largest comeback in ACC Women’s Basketball Championship history.
Coleman played just two minutes against Boston College in the quarterfinals — the fewest she’s played in a game this season — and played only seven minutes in the first half.
She entered the game with 11:52 remaining and the Tar Heels trailing 44-42 and missed just 16 seconds after that, shooting five-for-six from the field and making six of eight free-throw attempts.
Senior point guard Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, who led UNC with 20 points, said Coleman has provided leadership on the team’s second group during practice.
“She knocks down those (shots) all the time in practice,” Ruffin-Pratt said. “It’s something we see often, but she just showed y’all a glimpse of what she can really do.”
Coleman hit a 3-pointer with 6 minutes left to tie the game at 52. UNC had not been tied with the Terrapins at that point since the teams were even at five points.
UNC grew its lead to as many as four points, before Maryland sharpshooter Katie Rutan tied the game at 60 on a 3-pointer with 2:46 remaining.
