Tar Heels rebound Tuesday's loss with a dominant win Friday

Following its first loss of the season, the North Carolina women’s basketball team was hoping a trip to Myrtle Beach would offer a chance to rebound from their stunning defeat Tuesday. 

And on Friday night, that’s exactly what UNC did: rebound.

After losing the advantage on the glass in the loss against Oregon State, the Tar Heels (10-1) refocused their efforts on rebounding — winning the battle 43-34 — in their 65-36 victory over Maine (7-4), the first of two games in the Carolinas Challenge. 

“Even though we lost the game (on Tuesday), we recovered fast,” said sophomore guard Allisha Gray, who grabbed eight rebounds in addition to her game-high 17 points. “We were meaning to take it out in this game and we did well, picking up in the second half.”

It was truly a tale of two halves for the Tar Heels, who led by just 6 points at halftime after being beaten on the boards by the Black Bears in the opening 30 minutes.

“I got on them about rebounding,” said Coach Sylvia Hatchell, whose team outrebounded Maine by 13 in the second half. “We did a much better job of rebounding and getting it in there and just picked up the intensity.”

Despite bouncing back in the second half, the first period looked more like a continuation of the team’s troubles against the Beavers.

No. 6 North Carolina went into the half mustering just 24 points — tied for the team’s lowest first-half scoring output of the season — as the team once again struggled to shoot the ball, going 0-for-10 from the 3-point line and 4-for-10 from the charity stripe.

“This is sort of how we played the other night when we lost to Oregon State; just the last 10 days or so we’ve been very lethargic,” Hatchell said. “We played good defense, and we were getting shots, they just weren’t going in.”

The shadow of the past game loomed large over the players in the locker room, who were once again confronted with poor shooting and uninspired rebounding. 

But the battle-tested Tar Heels knew that a little momentum was all they needed to take over.

“They’ve played in too many tough games this year,” said Hatchell, referring to the Tar Heels’ five top-25 opponents thus far. “I just kept waiting for them to take off, put it in another gear and take off.”

And once the team reasserted its aggressive style of play — sparking a 37-8 run early in the second half — there was no turning back.

“We thought back to last game, just talking about focus,” sophomore forward Stephanie Mavunga said. “We’ve kind of been lazy and nonchalant on the court, and so we just really keyed in and focused in the second half.”

“We focused on the little things — the fundamentals — and that’s what really helped us.”