The temperature was in single digits outside Purcell Pavilion Thursday, but the No. 14 North Carolina women’s basketball felt the warmth of No. 2 Notre Dame’s hot shooting as the Tar Heels fell 100-75.
The undefeated Fighting Irish (28-0, 15-0 ACC) played intensely from the opening-tip with Kayla McBride taking the ball to the hoop with her right hand and executing a layup only 20 seconds in.
McBride’s layup was the start of a 10-2 run fueled by four UNC turnovers that forced associate head coach Andrew Calder to burn a timeout barely two minutes into the game.
Calder said the Fighting Irish’s ACC-best scoring defense troubled the team from the beginning — forcing UNC to revert to other options throughout the night.
“They understood exactly what we were trying to accomplish in each play — first option, second option,” Calder said. “We were having to go to third and fourth options in some of those plays that we haven’t been tending to do that. They took us out of what we were trying to do.”
UNC (21-8, 9-6 ACC) came out of the timeout seemingly unperturbed after the fast-paced opening and cut the Fighting Irish’s lead down to 20-15, but this was as close as the team would get the rest of the night.
The Fighting Irish would proceed to cut the UNC defense up with surgical finesse — slipping off screens, using backdoor cuts and an astonishing 60.6 field-goal percentage to procure a 55-38 lead at the half.
Sophomore forward Xylina McDaniel said adjusting to Notre Dame’s offensive approach was an arduous task, and the team’s inability to do so was critical to the outcome.
“They come out there and screen so fast — that’s just hard to guard,” McDaniel said. “It’s so slow, but sometimes we kind of ball-watch, which messes us up on the help-side (defense). It’s the little things that make it difficult, but bring the difference into the game. And that was the difference.”
