The North Carolina women’s basketball team dropped another ACC game at the hands of the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 94-62, on Thursday night for its third loss in four games to conference foes.
What happened?
North Carolina (14-8, 4-5 ACC) was outmatched right from the opening tip. UNC allowed 50 percent shooting from the field, gave up seven turnovers and made just five shots en route to a 26-11 deficit at the end of the first quarter.
It didn’t get much better in the second quarter, as Notre Dame (21-2, 9-1 ACC) outscored UNC again 25-10. North Carolina struggled to hit shots regularly and finished the half shooting just 23.5 percent from the field compared to the the Fighting Irish's 53.8 percent.
If UNC wanted to take down the No. 5 team in the country on the road, the team needed a great shooting day and an excellent showing from their leaders, redshirt junior guard Paris Kea and senior guard Jamie Cherry.
But the Fighting Irish’s duo of junior guards Marina Mabrey and Arike Ogunbowale were too tough to stop. Mabrey scored 25 points on 3-7 from three, and Ogunbowale added 24 points with four three-point makes of her own.
In the end, the higher ranked team won the game.
Who stood out?
Kea (13 points) and Cherry (15 points) combined for 28 points, but did so on 10-27 shooting. They distributed the ball to other teammates and corralled eight assists, but the duo also racked up double digit turnovers.
