There have been many feats accomplished throughout the illustrious history of the North Carolina women’s basketball program, but Monday night’s performance against the New Orleans Privateers was one for the books.
In their first of two games this week at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, the No. 14 Tar Heels (9-2) clobbered the Privateers (0-9) by the preposterous score of 124-41. With this prodigious 83-point victory, the team made its mark in the school record book — setting records for most points scored in a game and largest margin of victory.
The Tar Heels’ previous record for most points in a game was 121 against Mercer on Nov. 29, 1985.
UNC asserted its dominance from the opening tip — beginning the game on a 17-0 run and establishing a 30-2 lead prior to the media timeout taken at the 11:27 mark.
Despite finding itself with a cushy lead, the team managed to stay focused on the task at hand — taking a 72-18 lead into the locker room at the half. Freshman point guard Jessica Washington, who finished the game with 13 points and was a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point land, said she was astonished by the number of points the team racked up in the first half.
“The first half, whenever we had like 72, I looked up at the scoreboard and I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of points in the first half,’” Washington said. “So, just thinking that, we could get like 140 if we go the same rate in the second half.
“They had told us at halftime that the school record was 121. Whenever they told us that exact number, we all wanted to break that record — that was our goal.”
Although the team came out of the half with this extra motivation, the Tar Heels still had 20 minutes left until they accomplished their primary goal for the game — to win.
The team went on to shoot 66.7 percent from the field in the second half, 64.3 percent for the game, to ultimately complete the rout of the Privateers. Junior guard Latifah Coleman, who finished with an almost impeccable 12-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, said the satisfaction the team received from adding another “W” to the win column was much greater than that which it received from the records.
