Associated Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. ó No. 11 North Carolina may have been upset Saturday had coach Sylvia Hatchell not broken up the Tar Heels’ two-week layoff before the NCAA tournament with one last game.
The Tar Heels confirmed her fears of a flat start and nearly squandered a 14-point lead in the final 30 seconds.
But Heather Claytor scored a season-high 17 points, while Italee Lucas and Jessica Breeland added 17 each as the third-seeded Tar Heels beat the No. 14 seed Central Florida Knights 85-80 in the opening round.
Hatchell had her team play South Dakota on March 15 ó a day before the NCAA bracket announcement ó to try and keep them fresh during the two-week layoff between the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and the NCAA.
“If we had not played that game, we might’ve lost today,” Hatchell said. “I’m just being serious with you. A lot of times you’re rusty playing this first game because you’ve had such a long layoff. I think that game made us realize a sense of urgency a little more and helped make us be a little more focused for how good this team was.”
North Carolina (28-6) matched its biggest lead at 85-71 on Breeland’s layup with 33 seconds left. Then Hatchell pulled her. UCF (17-17) went to work, scoring the final nine points in a flurry featuring a steal and a couple turnovers by the Tar Heels.
“Whether they put their bench in or not, we wanted to leave an impression,” UCF coach Joi Williams said. “These last 37 seconds show people what you’re made of and how you’re going to finish out games. The last timeout we talked … We wanted to play smart, play aggressive and see if we could score some more points…
“I was very proud of how they finished off the game. I think that’s the impression we’ll leave for UCF women’s basketball and for North Carolina if we meet them again.”
North Carolina used its size to shoot over the smaller Knights, hitting 9-of-20 from 3-point range. The Tar Heels have seven players 6-foot-1 or taller compared to UCF, who played only two of its 6-footers.
“We wanted to set our inside presence today to get our outside shots open,” Lucas said. “We were able to pull the zone open and knock down shots.”
The Tar Heels will play No. 6 seed Purdue or 11th-seeded Charlotte on Monday night in the Oklahoma City Regional’s second round. They improved to 15-3 all-time in first-round games but never led by more than 14 against pesky UCF whose roster’s filled with only sophomores and freshmen.
North Carolina needed some help from Claytor, who came off the bench averaging 3.7 points per game and hit 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Hatchell said Claytor worked well against UCF’s zone after having her minutes limited against teams playing man-to-man. The senior guard hadn’t played more than 17 minutes in a game since Jan. 22 at Georgia Tech until Saturday.