North Carolina’s women’s basketball team started hot but trailed off on both ends of the court toward the end of the first half.
N.C. State leads the Tar Heels 33-32 at halftime after an up-and-down opening period, in which the two teams combined for 27 turnovers.
UNC led early, capitalizing on turnovers created by its swarming, high-press defense. The Tar Heels scored 16 points off of turnovers. It looked as if, at 13-6, the game would not be the nail-biter that UNC’s 70-66 victory at Reynolds Coliseum had been earlier in the season.
But the Wolfpack out-rebounded the Tar Heels 21-13, and UNC only pulled down three offensive rebounds.
Only three Tar Heels ended the half with at least one field goal. Waltiea Rolle and Tierra-Ruffin Pratt put up 10 and 12 points, respectively, while Xylina McDaniel scored nine. Krista Gross added a single free throw.
The scoring attack for N.C. State, meanwhile, was more balanced. Three players scored eight first-half points, and another two scored four. Marissa Kastanek hit two crucial 3-pointers late in the half, the first of the game, to extend and re-extend N.C. State’s lead to as many as five points.
North Carolina did not make any of the four 3-pointers it attempted in the first half.
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