The No. 19 UNC women’s basketball (11-2, 0-1 ACC) team bounced back with a dominant win over Florida (7-5), 77-57, in the Jumpman Invitational on Wednesday night.
Off the strength of their guard play, especially from first-year guard Lanie Grant, the Tar Heels doubled the Gators in the first half. Despite shooting well in the second half, Florida couldn’t stop North Carolina long enough to make a comeback.
“Lanie we trust on offense,” head coach Courtney Banghart said. “She’s really worked hard to get better at her angles, and better in her rotations, and just better with her block out, just on that side of the ball, and I thought she was seamless tonight.”
The game took a while to get started, with two trips up and down the court producing nothing, but a hooking layup from Florida got the scoring started a minute and a half in.
After two quick layups gave the Tar Heels an early 4-2 lead, they struggled to maintain possession of the ball. Their fast-paced offense led to three early turnovers, including one by graduate forward Alyssa Ustby that gave Florida an easy fast-break layup.
But a 3-pointer from junior guard Indiya Nivar set North Carolina in motion, and turnovers began to plague Florida.
After one of those turnovers, Grant drained a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. Then, after another turnover, she hit another 3-pointer from the wing. Finishing out the quarter strong, junior guard Treyanna Crisp nailed a third 3-pointer to finish out an 11-point UNC run and finish the quarter 23-7.
“Like coach said, she’s very confident of my skills on the offensive end,” Grant said. “So I had the freedom to get my teammates involved and also look for my own shots.”
Grant led the charge in the second quarter. After stealing the ball, she drove down the court, pulled up at the foul line and drained a mid range jumper.
