UNC women down Virginia Tech in ACC basketball semi behind Grant’s career high
Last year, then-freshman Lanie Grant was one of the youngest players in college basketball at 17 after reclassifying and graduating early from high school. She’s been challenged to take another leap this season, stepping in for the injured preseason All-ACC honoree Reniya Kelly.
If Grant’s performance Friday night in Duluth, Georgia, is any indication, the sophomore guard is plenty comfortable. Grant dropped a career-high 21 points to help lift No. 3-seed UNC to an 85-68 win over No. 6-seed Virginia Tech in the ACC Women’s Tournament quarterfinals.
Senior forward Nyla Harris, who transferred to North Carolina after three seasons at Louisville, scored 19 points on Friday and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season. Harris was named to the All-ACC First Team earlier this week, as voted on by the league’s head coaches.
The Tar Heels (26-6, 15-4 ACC) move on to face No. 2 seed Louisville at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in the semifinals. North Carolina will appear in the conference tournament semifinals for the 30th time, which marks the most appearances by any ACC program.
“I’m excited to play them tomorrow,” Harris said about playing the Cardinals, her former team. “I think my teammates are as well. We’re ready to get back.”
Guards Elina Aarnisalo and Nyla Brooks were the Tar Heels’ other double-digit scorers against Virginia Tech, with 18 and 10 points, respectively. Aarnisalo led the team with six assists.
UNC held the Hokies to a dismal 11.1% success rate from the 3-point line and 34.8% shooting from the field — the 19th opponent North Carolina has held to under 40% from the field. The Tar Heels are undefeated in those 19 games.
Virginia Tech leading scorer Carleigh Wenzel led the Hokies with 26 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field and a 14-of-15 performance from the free throw line.
“I thought we did a really good job on her,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “Their guards are really speedy, so you have to play underneath them as quick as you can… but they’re hard to guard.”
North Carolina fell behind 16-11 after the opening quarter of play, but outscored Virginia Tech 29-11 in the second quarter behind a combined 18 points from Aarnisalo and Brooks. On the other end, the Tar Heels held the Hokies to 3-of-15 from the field in the second quarter.
Banghart said UNC’s ability to get stops in the second quarter allowed the team’s offense to get into a flow.
“I sort of planted that seed that there’s a possibility that we got to find our legs (early),” Banghart said of the Tar Heels’ slow start. “Once we did that, I liked a lot of the takes… I was more concerned about the fact that we gave up 16 points.”
Virginia Tech kept pace with North Carolina’s offense for the remainder of the game, but the Tar Heels’ explosive second quarter was enough to lift UNC to its fifth straight victory. North Carolina has won 13 of its last 14 games.
The Tar Heels have a chance Saturday to avenge their 76-66 overtime loss to the Cardinals on Dec. 14, which marked UNC’s first game of the conference slate.
“It’s been a while since we played that game,” Aarnisalo said Friday, later adding, “I think we’re going to come out tomorrow (like) it’s a new game, new opportunity. We’re going to be aggressive. It doesn’t matter what happened in the last game… we’ve gotten so much better since that game.”