Tar Heels Comeback to Defeat Hokies

BLACKSBURG, Va. – After trailing by 14 points at halftime, the North Carolina Tar Heels women’s basketball team stormed back to earn a 68-63 win at Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon, closing out a highly-irregular regular season with a fifth win in the past six games.

On Sunday, freshman guard Deja Kelly led four Tar Heels in double figures with 22 points, equaling her career-high for the second game in a row. Senior center Janelle Bailey grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds to go with her 12 points for the 43^rd double-double of her career and what her coach called one of her best games as a Tar Heel.

After facing the big halftime deficit following a 28.6 percent second-quarter shooting performance, UNC outscored the Hokies 21-8 in the third quarter to go into the fourth trailing by just one. Bailey had no doubt about the outcome.

“You could tell from the look on everybody’s faces, whether it was on the bench or on the floor, that we were going to get the job done,” she said. “They were shooting lights out, but we locked in defensively in the second half and we made the right plays, knocked down shots. It was a total team win and I’m just so happy.”

The Tar Heels were the ones who came out hot, shooting 52.9 percent in the first quarter to lead by one, 19-18, after 10 minutes. The Hokies took over in the second, however, hitting 68.8 (11-16) from the field to build a 45-31 lead by halftime.

Prior to Sunday UNC had rebounded from a double-digit halftime deficit to win this season. But at Cassell Coliseum, the Tar Heels came out of the locker room with an 8-1 run that included threes by Kelly and Petra Holešínská to trim the margin to single digits. Although the Hokies pushed their lead back to 10 with 3:29 to play in the quarter, UNC chipped away over the rest of the period, outscoring the hosts 13-4 the rest of the way to make it a one-point game going into the final 10 minutes

Holešínská scored the first five points of the period and the Tar Heels pulled out to a six-point lead, 59-53, with 6:54 remaining in the game. They would not get any more cushion than that down the stretch, but they never trailed again. Virginia Tech did tie the score at 60-60 with 4:33 to play but the Tar Heels scored the next six points to pull away again. They held on for the win, with grad student Stephanie Watts hitting two free throws with 21 seconds to play for the final margin after Virginia Tech drew within three after a three-pointer by Georgia Amoore.

Holešínská finished with 11 points, including three makes from long range. Watts also scored 11 and led the team with four steals. 

Amoore scored 22 points to lead the Hokies, who also got 14 from Aisha Sheppard and 12 from Azana Barnes.

The Tar Heels had lost to the Hokies four times in a row, including twice already this year, 66-54 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 14 and 73-69 in Blacksburg on Jan. 31. Sunday’s game, the unusual third regular-season meeting, replaced scheduled rivalry games that had been canceled for both teams, Duke for UNC and Virginia for Virginia Tech after the Blue Devils and Cavaliers ended their seasons.

“What a huge win,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “We felt like we needed it. That was a really good team that had won six in a row and came out really shooting well. I told the team I thought they really stuck together. We’re growing up at the right time.”   

With the win, Carolina (13-9, 8-9 ACC) earned the No. 8 seed in the ACC Tournament and will open play Thursday at noon against No. 9 Wake Forest. It’s the second year in a row the Tar Heels have opened the postseason against the Demon Deacons – last season UNC fell to Wake 83-73 in the first game of the tournament.