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North Carolina’s Deja Kelly takes aim during practice Thursday for the Tar Heels’ Sweet Sixteen game against No. 1 South Carolina at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday.
GREENSBORO — It’s fine if the North Carolina women’s basketball team’s spot in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen might look like an afterthought to some observers.
But make no mistake, the Tar Heels had this in mind all along.
“We’re kind of like, yeah, we knew we could be here,” guard Alyssa Ustby said Thursday. “We knew how good we’ve been since the summer.”
On Friday night, overall No. 1 seed South Carolina provides the opposition for North Carolina in the regional semifinal at the Greensboro Coliseum.
While the Gamecocks (31-2) played two home games to advance, the fifth-seeded Tar Heels (25-6) went across the country to win two games, including knocking off fourth-seeded Arizona on Monday night.
That ought to put North Carolina on the radar, even if recognition took time to develop this season.
“We kept our heads down and just kept pushing all year, just kept trying to prove what we were about, how we were playing, how good we are,” guard Deja Kelly said. “But never really letting it phase us, never really letting it affect us.”
This is North Carolina’s first spot in the Sweet Sixteen since the 2015 season — that ended against South Carolina at the Coliseum
North Carolina began this season unranked and didn’t move into the top 25 until mid-December, even dropping out in late January. Still, it has been a pretty complete season in terms of establishing credentials.
The Tar Heels won their first 13 games and later their last four of the regular season. Those are nice bookends, although they’d like this story to extend for another week-plus.
“For people to finally catch on is exciting, but we’ve been doing it all year,” Kelly said.
The Tar Heels rank seventh in the country in scoring margin, although South Carolina is No. 2.
Four months after the season began, only four teams have defeated the Tar Heels — N.C. State and Virginia Tech each beat North Carolina twice, and Notre Dame and Georgia Tech did it once.
Two of those teams are still playing. North Carolina’s résumé includes three games against No. 1 regional seeds, with the losses to N.C. State and an upset of Louisville.
The Tar Heels say they’re not offended by being left out of some conversations regarding elite teams. They’ll just have to prove it on the court.
“I come from the mid-major background so I’ve always kind of had that chip on my shoulder, underdog mentality,” said guard Carlie Littlefield, a graduate transfer from Princeton. “I enjoy it, and I think it drives our team even closer together and to work even harder.”
The Tar Heels have had quite a week. Their most recent game marked the last second-round game in the tournament. They’re first to tip off in the Sweet Sixteen.
After that victory in Tucson, Ariz., the team stayed overnight there and traveled back on Tuesday. The Tar Heels were in Chapel Hill for less than 24 hours.
“I don’t think it was anyone’s intention, but we’ve gotten a very short period of time to rest,” Coach Courtney Banghart said. “So it might be a good thing because we don’t have to reset. We’re just still going.”
The Gamecocks and Tar Heels scrimmaged in the preseason. That gave a good gauge of how the teams stacked up at the time.
“I would say just knowing that we can compete with anybody in the country and just having that mentality going into this game as well,” Kelly said. “We know that they’re a good team, but we are as well.”
It’s not like the Tar Heels need to win a series. They’re looking for one memorable night.
“You don’t have to beat them 10 times,” Banghart said. “We’ve just got to beat them once, right?”
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North Carolina’s Deja Kelly takes aim during practice Thursday for the Tar Heels’ Sweet Sixteen game against No. 1 South Carolina at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday.
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