Reniya Kelly plays pivotal role in No. 16 UNC women's basketball's win over No. 14 Kentucky

Last February, Reniya Kelly was on her way to becoming an influential piece on a star-studded UNC women's basketball team. 

After starting the season slow and missing three games with a head injury, the then first-year guard was earning more minutes and scoring more points practically every game. 

Against Duke, she played a season-high 42 minutes — a step up from her average of 17.3 minutes a game before the February match-up. She recorded 13 points to mark her third double-digit outing of the year. 

But then she suffered another injury. This time, it was an undisclosed lower body injury. She missed the last nine games of the season, tanking her offensive progress. 

Still, after battling the mental struggles that came with a major injury, Kelly was confident that she would fit in perfectly with North Carolina’s new offense this season as a sophomore and perhaps be able to pick up where she left off. 

“Last year we did have a lot of stagnant, stickiness to the ball,” Kelly said before the season started. “But now I think it’s actually really fun, and I’m fitting in right as I should.”

And Kelly was right. In No. 16 North Carolina's dominant 72-53 win over No. 14 Kentucky on Thursday, Kelly recorded a team-high 18 points and her layups were a driving force behind UNC’s 42 points in the paint. Her clutch timing contributed to the Tar Heels pulling away from the Wildcats in the waining minutes of the fourth quarter to secure UNC's first ranked win of the year.

It took a while for Kelly to warm up. She scored only three points in the first half on 1-5 shooting. 

But she didn’t give up. 

In the fourth quarter, as North Carolina was looking to put away the game, it was Kelly’s 12 points and 3-3 shooting that put the game out of reach for Kentucky. 

“I train on those shots and I will keep taking them,” Kelly said. “And also trusting teammates that they will give me the ball and I will give them the ball in the right situations.” 

Head coach Courtney Banghart described Kelly as the “quintessential point guard." She's a distributer.

And Kelly fulfilled that role well, recording a season-high six assists on Thursday. Senior center Maria Gakdeng reached the 1000-point milestone in the game and credited Kelly and the play of the backcourt as a whole. 

“Our guards getting the ball inside more, they’re really good with that,” Gakdeng said. 

But Kelly, who stands at an unassuming 5-foot-7, really shined on her own.

With about seven minutes remaining in the game, Kelly got a defensive rebound and began to dribble down the court. As defenders spread out, waiting for Kelly to kick the ball to one of her teammates, she stuttered at the top of the key.

Driving to the rim, Kelly faked out her defender and then finished off a left-handed layup.

As Kentucky split its coverage and attention, Kelly was continuously able to find space in the lane, maneuvering around defenders on her way to the basket. 

“How we’ve been played previously is people collapse on her penetration and she’s able to find people,” Banghart said. “I think when they challenged her to finish she really did that.” 

Playing a team-leading 35 minutes on Thursday, Kelly is in the right position to achieve the success that she was approaching before her injury last year. 

And against a ranked opponent like Kentucky, Kelly proved that she can stay composed in big moments. 

“What do you say about Reniya Kelly except the dog that she is and was,” Banghart said.

@BeckettBrant

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