CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There were tears being shed by the WVU women’s basketball team in the back hallways inside Carmichael Arena on Monday night.
On the court, shoulders were being shrugged, as WVU defenders looked sometimes bewildered in trying to keep North Carolina away from the basket.
“They did a good job of finding mismatches,” was the way WVU forward Kyah Watson put it.
The Tar Heels did exactly that while advancing to their 19th Sweet 16 following a 58-47 victory over the Mountaineers.
North Carolina (29-7) will play rival Duke in the third round on Friday, in Birmingham, Ala.
WVU (25-8) saw its season end in the second round of the NCAA tournament for a second straight season.
This one brought an end to J.J. Quinerly’s career. The senior guard was frustrated throughout the night — and just like most of her teammates — struggled on the offensive end.
She shot just 2 of 12 from the floor and finished with eight points.
“I hope to be remembered as one of the best guards to ever play at West Virginia University,” Quinerly said. “I think I did a lot under a lot of different coaches. I think I left a legacy here, and I’m leaving the program in a better position than when I first came in.”
The Tar Heels (29-7) came in with their own defensive gameplan, even though it was West Virginia’s chaotic full-court pressure that garnered most of the attention in pregame interviews on Sunday.
That certainly irked North Carolina head coach Courtney Banghart.
“I was tired of hearing about their defense,” Banghart said. “Not because it’s not one of the best defenses in the country, but why was no one talking about our defense?”
And while North Carolina’s twin-tower duo of Alyssa Ustby and Maria Gakdeng provided matchup problems for WVU’s defense, the Tar Heels’ defense made just as big of an impact.
Try these numbers out for size: WVU shot just 9.5% from 3-point range. The Mountaineers were just 2 of 21 from behind the arc and the second make didn’t come until there was 39 seconds remaining in the game.
By that time, North Carolina’s victory was assured.
WVU’s 47 points were a season low and they were held to just 13 of 54 shooting overall (24.1%).
“I thought we would have a little bit better offensive performance in us, but it just wasn’t our night on the offensive end, certainly they had a lot to do with that,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said.
Ustby finished with 21 points, with 16 of those coming in the second half. The 6-foot-1 small forward added seven rebounds and got to the free-throw line 10 times.
She also continued to draw fouls on Quinerly and teammates Jordan Thomas and Kylee Blacksten, getting all three players in foul trouble.
Quinerly picked up her fourth foul with 1:38 remaining in the third quarter. She never fouled out, but was unable to play her usual style of hard-nosed defense in the fourth quarter.
Blacksten fouled out early in the fourth quarter and Thomas followed later in the quarter.
And when it wasn’t Ustby, the 6-3 Gakdeng grabbed nine rebounds and played a role in keeping WVU’s guards from driving into the paint.
The biggest stat was turnovers. That’s generally where WVU thrives, but North Carolina came away with a 23-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
“These guys can defend. They’ve done it all year long,” Banghart said. “We knew exactly how we were going to defend them. For those of you who have followed us, it was no surprise to how we defended them.
“So, I think us hearing about their defense allowed us to sort of say, ‘OK, we’re going to prove it.’ ”
Even with all of that, WVU still found itself in a tie game, 35-35, with 2:44 remaining in the third quarter.
It was the type of “rock fight” Kellogg said he had envisioned, but the Tar Heels went on a 10-3 run to finish the third quarter and outscored West Virginia 13-9 in the fourth.
“It was our offense,” Kellogg said. “We shot 24% and nine-and-a-half percent from three. It’s going to be hard to win games when you only score 47 points.
“We can win games holding teams to 58. I think our effort on the defensive end was really good. We competed. We never made any runs.”
