UNC women fall in OT at Wake Forest, 82-79

Winston-Salem, N.C. — Four Tar Heels scored in double-figures but it wasn’t quite enough to get a win at Wake Forest Sunday afternoon, as the UNC women’s basketball team fell 82-79 in overtime to the Demon Deacons at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Senior Madinah Muhammad scored 21 points and senior Taylor Koenen had 17 points and 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season. Senior guard Shayla Bennett added 16 points and led UNC with five assists. Freshman Malu Tshitenge had 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds.

Carolina fell to 16-11 overall and 7-9 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with its fifth consecutive loss. The Tar Heels play their third road game in a row on Thursday at Notre Dame.

“There are a lot of good takeaways,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “Obviously if you win that game you feel a little differently but as I told them in the locker room, there were some games in this losing streak when I felt frustrated. I’m not frustrated (today), I’m disappointed.

“This was urgent, this was cohesive, this was tough. That’s what we want to be about.”

UNC was without its leading scorer and rebounder, junior center Janelle Bailey, who was on the bench with an injury. Her absence necessitated the first starting lineup change all season, as junior guard Leah Church started in Bailey’s place. A total of seven Tar Heels played in the win.

Wake jumped ahead from the start and led by 10, 16-6, with 2:41 to play in the first quarter, when the Demon Deacons shot 56.3 percent from the field to UNC’s 40 percent. The Tar Heels trailed by six going into the second period but quickly closed the margin to two after back-to-back buckets by freshman Nia Daniel, the second with 7:52 to play until halftime.

Daniel came off the bench to equal her season high with eight points on a season-high 22 minutes of play. A total of seven players saw action for UNC, with freshman Kennady Tucker also coming off the bench.

The Tar Heels trailed by four at the break, although they went into the locker room thinking it was three. A shot by Muhammad had been called a three-pointer but was reviewed and ruled a two to make it 31-27 at halftime.

In fact, neither team hit one from long-range until the closing minutes of regulation and were a combined 0-for-14 up to that point. With 1:17 to play, Muhammad hit the first one of the game to put UNC up by three, 62-59. After Wake answered to make it a one-point game, Muhammad scored on a layup to again put the Tar Heels up three with 22 seconds to play.

“I just took what the defense gave me,” Muhammad said. “I think we did a good job playing together – we adapted.”

The Tar Heels still held a three-point lead, 68-65, in the closing seconds before Wake’s Gina Conti hit her team’s first three-pointer of the afternoon with 3.1 seconds on the clock to tie it at 68-68 and ultimately send the game into overtime.  

The OT was UNC’s second of the season, following at win at Georgia Tech a month ago. This extra period didn’t go as well, as WFU made four of its six shots to outscore UNC 14-11 and capture the win. Carolina had 14 field goal attempts in the five-minute period, including four on one possession, but made five of them, 35.7 percent. UNC was 0-for-1 from the foul line while Wake was 5-for-9.

“It was a possession game throughout,” Banghart said. “Players make plays, and they made more than we did.”

Koenen missed her first 11 shots of the day, but hit her first on a rebound of her own miss midway through the second quarter and was 3-for-8 after that. She went 11-for-14 from the foul line for career highs in both makes and attempts. Both figures are team highs this year.

The Tar Heels got off 80 shots, second highest of the year and their highest in ACC play. The team’s three-point percentage (2-14, .143) was the second lowest of the season.