Limited lineup, exhaustion burdens UNC women's basketball in loss to Duke

With less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, all four UNC guards tried to catch their breath at the free-throw line, gasping for air with hands on their knees. 

North Carolina's energy had slipped away, and along with it, the chance of a comeback. 

Exhaustion set in across the No. 8 UNC women's basketball roster in the second half. The Tar Heels lost control before ultimately falling, 68-53, to No. 16 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday night in their first road game loss this season.

The absence of UNC’s two leading scorers, graduate forward Alyssa Ustby and sophomore guard Reniya Kelly, forced guards Lanie Grant and Grace Townsend to play season-high minutes. Pressured to step up offensively, the burden was too much for the North Carolina bench.

“You're asking guys to play 30 more minutes than maybe they usually do," head coach Courtney Banghart said. "So I think the fatigue sort of set in halfway through."

The exhaustion manifested itself in different ways throughout the game. 

"Mental energy mistakes" led to poor passing decisions or jammed spacing. The Tar Heels coughed up the ball 20 times in total. Eight of them were unforced. 

And when Duke got out in transition because of the giveaways, UNC didn’t have the energy to get back defensively. Duke's 25 points off of turnovers ties the season-high for a North Carolina opponent this year. 

“That's something we talked about at halftime,” Duke head coach Kara Lawson said.“ Keep pushing the pace and see if we can get some looks in transition. And that did manifest itself there in the second half.”

The lack of energy became apparent as UNC labored through the second half. Banghart pointed out the lack of  “quickness and separation” from North Carolina’s guards made offense difficult. North Carolina scored at a 39 percent rate per possession, while Duke statistically scored on every other trip down the floor. 

The Tar Heels couldn't keep up on both ends of the floor. 

“It takes a lot of energy,” Banghart said. “That's what’s so great about basketball: it's a two-way sport. You don’t get to sub out because it’s a new play.”

In the end, North Carolina’s bench didn’t have the energy to beat Duke on the road, especially while the team's two leading scorers wore street clothes. 

Ustby has played three minutes over the last four games after suffering a lower-body injury against N.C. State. Kelly was a late scratch on Thursday evening. 

Banghart described Kelly’s status as “minute-to-minute” and wasn't too concerned about Ustby. But she decided to hold each player out against the Blue Devils. She wants them to be healthy for a potential ACC Championship rather than a rivalry matchup. 

UNC’s shorthanded loss may be its only fatigue ridden result. North Carolina hopes to have both starters healthy before an end-of-season campaign starting next week in Greensboro during the ACC tournament. 

“If this was an NCAA tournament game, might be a little bit different, but we've got some more season left,” Banghart said. “We want to make sure we're at our best when we need to be.” 

UNC’s loss dropped the Tar Heels out of contention for the outright No. 3 seed in next week's tournament, and put them in a four-way tie for the last two double-byes with Duke, Florida State and Louisville.

After the game, Grant — who was red in the face and exhausted from a career-high 37 minutes — noted how the Tar Heels will have to use lessons from Thursday’s game as a blueprint to succeed if injuries linger into next week.

“If we continue to go in with like this type of lineup," Grant said, "this is going to be a crucial game to go back [to] and watch the film back and learn a lot from."

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