The #17 Ladies travel to Chapel Hill to play the #24 Tar Heels Sunday at noon on ESPN2. I don't know how the time gets away from me on these things. It's 9PM Saturday and the Hokies play at noon tomorrow and I have not started the game thread. These Thursday to Sunday turnarounds are tough for me. They must be a real challenge for the Ladies. But they are younger than I am.
UNC is 15-7, 7-3 and tied for fourth in the ACC; the Hokies are 17-4, 8-2 and second in the ACC. If the Hokies win they stay in second; lose and they drop to a tie for fourth with UNC, at least until Monday when 7-2 NC State plays 8-1 Louisville.
UNC has two questionable losses to FGCU at home and LOLUVA on the road. Their other losses are to ranked teams. They come in on a two game losing streak losing at UVA and at NC State.
The Tar Heels are a mature team starting 2 seniors, a grad student, a junior and a sophomore. #25 Kelly, #1 Ustby and #20 Donarski play 33 or 34 min/game. #5 Gakdeng and #24 Nivar play 20 to 24 min. Reserves #2 Paris, #11 McPherson and #10 freshman Reniya Kelly play 17-20 min/game. #31 Poole rounds out the usual players with 13 min/game. Gakdeng is the tallest player at 6'3; only Ustby at 6'1, Donarski at 6' and Poole at 6'2 are over 6 feet. The Hokies should have a height advantage most of the game.
#25 Deja Kelly leads the offense with 16.4 ppg, #1 Ustbe at 12.5 and #20 Donarski at 10.1 score in double figures; #1 Gakdeng almost reaches double digits at 9.7. The rest of the regular players contribute 4-7 ppg. UNC shoots 29.3% from three with Donarski and Paris the only players at or above 30% from beyond the arc; but Deja Kelly can get hot.
All the starters average 1.9 to 3.1 fouls per game. But I don't expect a game played in Chapel Hill with ACC refs to see a lot of fouls called on the Heels; I could be pleasantly surprised, especially if Ustby gets switched onto Kitley very often. UNC typically wins the rebound battle by 3.5 rebounds per game. Summiel could have a big impact here.
No team in the NCAA can stop Kitley or Amoore when they are on; but the Hokies are going to need support from the other three starters and the bench to win this one. This would be a great game for King to find her shot and for Ekh to continue shooting well. If King, or someone, can slow down Deja Kelly, the Hokies should do well.
Road wins in the ACC are hard to find, especially on Tobacco Road. The Ladies are going to have to bring their "A" game to win this one.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
LETS GO!
HOKIES
Tough stretch this week at UNC then at NCSU back to back. This week will likely determine their seed in the ACC tournament and possibly the NCAA tournament. I think 1-1 this week would be a huge accomplishment. Have to find a way to contain Kelly and force the rest of the team to beat you. State did that last Thursday and eked out a win in Raleigh. It will be a tall order since I anticipate this being 5 on 8, but they have to figure out how to defend without fouling, especially King if she gets matched up against Kelly.
I am not as worried about Deja Kelly. Really think the key is limiting their other players. In all but one of their losses Deja had at least 16 points. She was over 20 in three of their seven losses.
Will give UNC credit, they scheduled a pretty stiff OOC. Five of their seven losses are to ranked teams.
Kenny made this work. D Kelly with 26 (13 at the line)
Rest of team only scored 35. Only two other Heels in double figures.
Will be there yelling for the hokies with the wife and kids. Convinced my friend and his wife to come as well, but she is a unc alumnus so they are break even
Hmmm, maybe you should have convinced them not to come?
Sounds like you're not alone. Can hear the Hokies contingent very clearly on the broadcast!!!
Id say maybe 25-30% hokies here... Im doing my part to be heard
Sending positive vibes to Olivia's mom.
Looks like the ladies came ready to be physical. I guess it's a smart move if you figure they're gonna call things NC's way anyway.
Struck playing some nice defense.
Can hear the hokies fans chanting 'airball'.
Noice.
Not happy with the recent shot selection. Defense has been on point, but we haven't been able to pull away due to turnovers and pretty crappy offensive execution.
Lol...NC's coach several times with the patented Frank Beamer 'who farted' face......
Got to make shots. Shooting 37% from floor and 28% from three. No bueno.
NC 5 of 6 at the line.
VT hmm.....hasn't been to the line. Go figure.
Yeah, and that's all from D Kelly. She'll start driving more and getting more calls. We've got to deny her the ball, and when she has it we've got to keep her outside.
Nice contributions (offense and defense) from our "babies" in the first half. Now the starters need to start scoring more.
UNC shooting 17% from 3 and 23% overall. That's not going to last. We're going to have to score better in the second half to win this game.
And we've had 7 turnovers. Need to cut that back in the second half. Can't give uncheat those extra possessions.
That's bullshit. The backboard never lit up.
I'd like to see that again.
The full elbow lead by Kelly was bad...
Kitley can't find her shot.
HOLY JESUS- ARE WE GOING TO THE LINE?
Need to go to Kitley now
We actually managed to shoot worse in third. Now shooting 30% from field.
Let's hope it can only go up from here. Gotta get kitley going. She's been MIA offensively (compared to her normal- she'll probably still get a dub dub.)
Somebody needs to start making shots. Amoore, Ekh and King have not been consistent.
This is almost unbelievable. You wonder if it gets mental when everyone starts missing like this. Almost like they all start shooting tighter rather than smoothly and a free flowing motion. Got to get over that and start making open looks. If they can hit 2 or 3 in a row, maybe it can break them out of the funk.
reminds me of nc state a few years back where I felt like a 10 point lead was unbeatable
Kitley really struggling with the double team today.
What was the call there? Foul on Kitley?
Bullshit 3 second call.
It's like the ref included the time she actually had the ball
EkH!
Kitley hit by four different Heels before getting ball out to Amoore. Ridiculous
These announcers just absolutely stroking North Carolina....
amazing defense by ekh there
She and Strack have played great defensive games today
ditto this
Ugh.
Kitley again?
should have won already
2:00 scoring drought cost us. Hopefully we light it up in OT.
Ok...let's get amoore and ekh's dub dubs here and salt this away.
Double Double Doubles
Need 2 rebounds for ekh.
Got to get to the line here need one foul
Ok..need to make the freebies
Time to shine at the line, Liz
Really need to breakdown this film. We have done a terrible job with the double team on the post today. Other teams will mimic UNC's defensive approach. We need to be ready for this going forward.
Fortunately between the doubles and the switch to zone it freed up the 3 ball for 5 minutes.
The zone was a clever ploy at the end of regulation. But UNC went to the well too much in OT, and it cost them. VT had a dreadful day shooting from deep. That wasn't bound to last, and the space afforded the shooters against that zone was the difference in the game. Granted, you still have to make the shots, but the percentages would tell you it was only a matter of time before they started going in. That being said, it was the double teams from the man-to-man and our inability to get the open player into space for the kick out for most of the game that worries me. Hopefully the coaches scheme against that this week since I'm sure NC State will attempt something similar.
With OT, Hokies finished 12-35. That was about one made three off season norm(34.3% vs 36.1%.) King though was the real struggle outside at 2-11 in the game.
The real issue was in the paint. They shot 12-36 inside. Kitley was 7-21. (33% vs 51% on interior shooting as a team)
The Elite Eight game came up in my YouTube algorithm after this. Everything was falling in that first quarter. I wondered was that typical last year or them hitting stride. (In context of losing to Duke and then winning out)
That was a clean poke by king.
King got all ball. That was a game changing bail out
AMOOOOOORRE!
EKHCELLENT
EKKKKKH!
Got lucky there
50 Rebounds
93 between both teams. 93 missed shots. Good grief.
SUCK IT TARHOLES!
OT DOUBLE DOUBLE DOUBLE 50 REBOUNDS FAM
Good finish. Nice to pull one out.
Free throws
Are
Money
FAM!!
Hokies were 24-71 from floor. Just mind boggling they got a win.
In a game with horrible shooting, the girls played great defense and got the win.
Not according to the UNC coach in her post game presser..."defense isnt what they do well"
See here at about 2:30 mark
This is two games in a row for Coach Banghart with some really off key post game as she also had some flat statements about NC State that just were way off base. She also has the patented Ron Rivera crossed arm defensive posture going on.
wow. She's a bit of a North Texas mug, eh?
Coach Brooks will use those comments to put a chip on their shoulder for the rematch.
She's not afraid to criticize her own players in public, either. How many times did she say that they didn't have anyone that she could rely on?
She's the Dave Clawson of ACC Women's Hoops.
She seems like a really terrible coach to play for and I really enjoy beating her. Kenny is honest but can be critical of the team without being negative about it
Yet she signed the #3 recruiting class in 2021 and the #9 class in 2023 per ESPN. Go figure. For reference, our 2023 class was ranked #19 that included Baker, Suffren and Strack, all 3 of which were top 100 recruits.
I didn't get to watch the game until this morning. Deja Kelly may be a very athletic player, but she was the beneficiary of a *lot* of questionable officiating where she was lowering her shoulder on offense and making a ton of contact on defense and not getting called.
It also continues my season long gripe with the officiating of the women's games. It's uneven, inconsistent, and often just atrocious.