UNC women's basketball falls to Maryland in ACC opener

They watched as the Maryland women’s basketball team doubled its first-half nine-point lead just minutes into the second — as Maryland guard Katie Rutan knocked down three 3-pointers in the second half alone, as the Terrapins began to run away with North Carolina’s ACC opener in Chapel Hill on Sunday.

Maybe if the Tar Heels had had more time, maybe if they had converted on just a few more layups or knocked down a couple more of their 13 3-point attempts, the North Carolina women’s basketball team could’ve come out victorious in front of the 4,830 electric fans in Carmichael Arena.

But despite cutting an 18-point deficit to six as the second half unfolded, the Tar Heels ultimately came up short — falling to the Terrapins 79-70 in the two teams’ last meeting as ACC foes.

“Heck of a way to finish out our last time playing in Chapel Hill,” said Maryland senior Alyssa Thomas after the game.

“For our seniors it’s our last year in general, but just to be the last year in the ACC we definitely want to go out with a bang.”

Thomas led all players with 21 points and 14 rebounds, as UNC struggled to defend a dynamic Maryland team that boasts depth and experience.

But for associate head coach Andrew Calder, not all was lost in his team’s defeat. He managed to find a few things of which to be proud.

First, there was the rebounding.

Though Thomas claimed that the Tar Heels failed to box her team out, UNC claimed the battle of the boards 47-43.

“We do like the fact that we won the boards over Maryland,” Calder said.
“There’s not a lot of teams that do that … I’m very proud of that.”

Then there was the foul line.

“We did get to the line 36 times. That’s impressive,” he said. “That means to me we’re attacking.”

And then of course, there was the chance at pulling off the comeback — of leaving Maryland empty handed.

“We had a great battle back, we were down 18, came back, played hard,” he said. “We’ll learn from this, we’ll move on.”

Sparked in part by junior guard Brittany Rountree, UNC slowly but surely inched its way back into the contest, as she scored eight of her nine total points in the second half alone.

A statement 3-pointer from Rountree with 12:04 remaining in the game cut UNC’s deficit to 11 and forced a Maryland timeout.

Another Rountree field goal just 38 seconds later cut it to nine with 11:26 remaining, and in the ensuing five minutes, the Tar Heels managed to pull within six.

Freshman forward Stephanie Mavunga led the Tar Heels with 15 points and seven rebounds, followed by Latifah Coleman and Diamond DeShields who registered 13 and 12, respectively.

“With the amount of time that was on the clock it was either we were gonna let them keep doing that and lose by a huge margin or we had to tighten up,” DeShields said.

And tighten up the Tar Heels did.

But at the end of the day, it simply wasn’t enough.