Maria Gakdeng leads UNC women's basketball to win over Florida in Jumpman Invitational

CHARLOTTE — Following Wednesday's game against Florida, head coach Courtney Banghart had just one phrase to describe Maria Gakdeng.

“Maria is just a problem,” Banghart said as she stared down at the stat sheet. “That's all I can say about Maria. She's just a problem. Really fun to watch her do her thing.”

A problem for Florida's defenders all night, Gakdeng’s 14-point performance on Wednesday night led No. 19 North Carolina past the Gators, 77-57, at the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte. She has led the Tar Heels in scoring over the past five games and is quickly becoming the focal point of UNC’s offense now that she’s fully removed from an injury earlier this season. And against Florida, Gakdeng attacked early and often to help UNC establish its presence in the paint, going 5-6 from the field and 4-6 from the line. 

After a season-high 21 points in UNC’s loss to Georgia Tech loss on Sunday, Banghart said Gakdeng needed to be more demanding. The senior center would be shooting an ACC-best 71 percent from the field if she took enough attempts to count toward the stat. 

For this reason, getting her the ball in a scoring position has become a priority for North Carolina’s success.

Against Florida, it was evident. 

The Tar Heels gave Gakdeng several touches on post-ups within the first few possessions of the game. Gakdeng was effective with them, muscling her way past Florida’s center for a pair of baskets in the first quarter. 

“I think it's important for me to make them early on,” Gakdeng said. “So that's how I kind of started the game, getting some low post touches just to get me going, and get my confidence going.” 

On the defensive end, Gakdeng also had to be effective. She was matched up with Ra Shaya Kyle who leads Florida's offense, averaging 16.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. 

Using her physicality to her advantage, the Tar Heel center limited Kyle to only one shot and zero points in the first half. Gakdeng also went after Kyle on the offensive end, and by halftime Kyle had been assessed three personal fouls.

“Every game, I take pride in defense,” Gakdeng said. “So knowing that she's a leading rebounder and scorer I knew that it was gonna be a big game for me, but I knew also that I had to attack her on offense.” 

The senior’s recent success on both ends of the floor continues to show Gakdeng’s improvement as she recovers from a lower-body injury that plagued her early in the year. 

After a two-point performance against UConn in mid-November, Gakdeng missed a four-game stretch, including the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament over Thanksgiving break. During this time, the preseason All-ACC center sacrificed the Bahama experience with teammates for ice baths, weight training and conditioning to get her body back in shape. 

And because of Gakdeng’s effort to get back on the court, the Tar Heels were able to add another level of scoring to their already balanced attack. 

“We have a lot of shotmakers,” first-year guard Lanie Grant said. “One sitting over here in Maria.” 

Now, the only struggle for UNC is getting the ball to Gakdeng consistently.

In the second half, she only attempted two shots. Due, in part, to a handful of entry passes to the post that ended up out of bounds instead of in her hands. 

The errant passes resulted from Tar Heel guards trying to float the ball into Gakdeng over traffic, instead of using angles to better feed their center at the block.

“Those lofty passes are not in our arsenal,” Banghart said. “They're not passes I like, and they're passes that we’ll continue to hate and passes we’ll continue to negate and try to take away from our offense.” 

But when Gakdeng does get the ball 1-on-1 in the post, then she becomes a problem. 

“I like her against any matchup in the country at the post,” Banghart said. “She's a really good post-player and she keeps working, which is fun.” 

@cadeshoemaker23

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