GREENSBORO — Multiple obstacles stand in the way of a team winning the prestigious ACC tournament. And the North Carolina women’s basketball team took the first step Thursday with a 69-65 win against Wake Forest at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Wake Forest took control of the game from the opening tip, which featured high school teammates Diamond DeShields and Dearica Hamby squaring off. Hamby ultimately had the extra spring in her step, and the Deacons seized the lead on the first possession and tallied the first seven points of the game.
UNC missed its first five shots but would find an answer in freshman guard Allisha Gray — who drilled two 3-pointers on the team’s way to its first lead at 10-9. But this was the only lead the team would attain in the first half.
The Tar Heels double-dribbled and walked their way to 13 turnovers, shot an abysmal 32 percent and Wake Forest’s lethal tandem of Hamby and Chelsea Douglas sliced the Tar Heels apart to the tune of 32 first-half points and a 39-27 lead.
The team’s woes weren’t only present on the hardwood but on the bench — where Gray found herself for the remainder of the game after being the recipient of a hefty blow from Hamby in the final minutes of the half.
Without their second-leading scorer, the Tar Heels were seeking a spark coming out of the locker room. And they got one — maybe too much of one.
The team initiated a 7-0 run of their own to open the second half behind a series of phenomenal plays by DeShields including a neck-bending reverse layup.
Associate head coach Andrew Calder said the team took it upon themselves to respond in the second half.
“Well, we’re champions, and I think the players, they closed the door before I could get in there to them and kind of took care of business themselves,” Calder said. “I may have raised my voice just once, maybe, at them. But they responded.”
