Lexi Donarski drills six 3-pointers in Tar Heels' first ACC victory

Lexi Donarski has a signature celebration whenever she drills a 3-point shot. 

Instead of celebrating with flair or quick shimmy, the graduate guard always points to the player who assisted her on the basket.

In North Carolina’s 82-76 win over Clemson to open ACC play, Donarski headlined the Tar Heels’ best 3-point shooting performance of the season. The Iowa State transfer netted six of the team’s 11 made threes, with all of her baskets coming from catch-and-shoot opportunities that prompted her go-to finger point.

“They were all off assists,” Donarski said. “So I’m just thinking of the person that passed it to me after every single one.”

Coming into Sunday’s matchup, UNC averaged just 26.6 percent from behind the arc. So with over 12 days off since their last game, head coach Courtney Banghart got back to the basics. 

Banghart and her staff used film to show the team the little things that had been plaguing shooters from making looks they were getting. Things such as where foot and hand placement is after a catch – a detail the team has been obsessing about since their return from Christmas. 

“We have really been stressing that our guards are catch-pass ready, and we need to be catch-shot ready,” Banghart said. 

The extra emphasis reaped benefits immediately against a zone-heavy Clemson defense. Four different Tar Heel shooters found the bottom of the net from distance, with each North Carolina 3-pointer coming by way of an assisted spot up. 

But at halftime, the team was unsatisfied with its ability to knock down the majority of the shots they took. Donarski alluded to the locker room conversation the team had about stepping up their performance in ACC play, and challenging each other about being better with the looks they got in the second half.

Donarski led by example, putting on an impressive shooting display midway through the third quarter. In a span of 76 seconds, the Wisconsin native drilled a trio of threes to give UNC needed separation from the Tigers.

“My first thought is I can shoot this," Donarski said. "I can get it off. I have enough time rather than scanning the floor,” 

With a ‘shooters shoot’ mentality, she padded two more threes to the stat sheet in the second half, helping North Carolina pull away from a lingering Clemson counterpart. 

Yet Donarski downplayed her uptick in buckets. She claimed it was only a result of her teammate’s willingness to play unselfish basketball that led her to the opportunities where she could score. 

On the rare occasion that Donarski didn’t score, more often than not senior forward Alyssa Ustby was there to grab a long rebound. The athletic combo guard tallied five offensive rebounds on her way to a 20-point double-double. 

“If Lexi is shooting it from the left wing, I am going to be on the right side,” Ustby said. “Because I think if she is going to miss long then it might go that way.”

As the team dives fully into conference play following the new year, the successful outing from distance against the Tigers could foreshadow improvements for the Tar Heels. 

“These guys are incredibly coachable, they’re resilient and this was a step in the right direction,” Banghart said.

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