No. 16 UNC women’s basketball wins its ACC/SEC Challenge game, toppling No. 14 Kentucky

No. 16 UNC women’s basketball rode its lock-down defense to a 72-53 victory over No. 14 Kentucky in the ACC-SEC Challenge Thursday night.

After the Tar Heels built a 16-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, Kentucky never clawed back within more than nine points, allowing the Tar Heels to hold on for the ranked win at Carmichael Arena.

Reniya Kelly and Maria Gakdeng led the way for the Tar Heels with 18 and 16 points, respectively. Kelly caught the hot hand at the end — recording 12 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Wildcats at bay. Her 18 points marked a season-high for the sophomore guard.

North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart told her team to not be intimidated by Kentucky’s height and prioritized zoom action (creating off the dribble), moving the ball and cutting. The Tar Heels’ well-balanced offensive attack went according to Banghart’s plan as they racked up 16 bench points and saw five players score eight or more.

North Carolina also recorded 15 assists. After struggling with ball movement last year — the Tar Heels had the worst assist rate in the ACC and often lamented the ball got “stuck” — UNC has played much better in space thus far.

“It’s fun to think about how good you can be,” Banghart said. “But you don’t get there by thinking about it — you get there by doing it… this team fits my personality. They’re tough and they’re joyful. And then they also know when it’s time to lock in.”

This is now UNC’s fifth-straight win after falling to No. 2 UConn by eleven points on Nov. 15. Notably, this is Banghart’s first win against a team led by Kenny Brooks — who took the head coaching position at Kentucky after eight seasons with ACC foe Virginia Tech — since the 2021-2022 season. That breaks a six-game losing streak.

Here are three takeaways from the victory:

Ustby leads early surge

Ustby helped the Tar Heels race out to an early 15-point lead, racking up seven points, an assist and two rebounds in the opening quarter.

The team’s leading scorer worked on expanding her range in the off-season — dedicating roughly two months to breaking down and rebuilding her shot.

On Thursday night, she drained a triple in the opening quarter with confidence. Ustby is now 5-13 from behind the arc and, through just nine games, she’s made more triples than she did all of last season.

Ustby wasn’t the only big knocking down shots from deep, as redshirt freshman forward Ciera Toomey showed off her pick-and-pop ability with two 3-pointers.

But perhaps just as impressive was how the Tar Heels produced without Ustby on the court. After picking up two fouls, the graduate student sat and her team closed out the first half with a 9-2 scoring run — a testament to UNC’s depth.

“Multiple times throughout the game, we’re telling them at timeouts, ‘They can’t keep up this pace,’” Banghart said, later adding, “Our bench has given us a ton of opportunities to play fresher, longer and have more people to go to.”

Gakdeng gets it done

Gakdeng has looked to expand her defensive range, coming off a season that saw her lead the team with 51 blocks last year. Against Kentucky, Gakdeng built on that performance with two rejections and six defensive rebounds. Alongside Toomey and Ustby, Gakdeng and the frontcourt locked down the paint.

Speaking at the ACC Tipoff in October, Banghart said she tasked Gakdeng with working on her touch in the offseason.

“Maria had to finish through contact and over-the-top… and had to get stronger,” Banghart said.

Gakdeng did just that on Thursday, using her length to her advantage to finish over defenders en route to a season-high 16 points. UNC outscored Kentucky 42-10 in the paint and Gakdeng surpassed her career 1,000-point mark.

“Being as efficient as I am, I think I do deserve to take more shots,” Gakdeng said. “Our guards getting the ball inside more has been really effective.”

UNC continues defensive dominance

North Carolina held the Wildcats to just 53 points — well below their previous season-low of 70.

In a showdown of two teams renowned nationally for their defense, North Carolina prevailed by forcing 13 turnovers and imposing pressure around the rim.

The Tar Heels came in intending to “make their tall people move,” as Banghart put it. They did just that, successfully holding Kentucky bigs Teonni Key (a UNC transfer) and Clara Strack well below their scoring averages.

Strack, in particular, struggled. Matching up against Gakdeng for most of the evening, she shot 2-10 from the field and finished with a season-low four points and four rebounds — way off from her 18 point, 11 rebound averages.

This is more of the same for a Tar Heel team whose defense has led the charge so far this season. North Carolina ranks in the 90th percentile or better in opponent effective FG percentage, points per scoring attempt, 3-point percentage and 3-point percentage, per Her Hoop Stats.

This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 7:14 PM.