bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina rallied from a 19 points second-half deficit to cut No. 15 Florida State's lead to one three times but never could get over the hump, as the Tar Heels fell to the Seminoles 83-73 on Monday.
And even though No. 9 UNC made an impressive comeback, Coach Sylvia Hatchell did little to hide her displeasure of her team's performance during the postgame news conference.
According to Hatchell, the Tar Heels never should have been in that situation.
"We weren't ready when we started," Hatchell said. "I don't know what it was. We've had a week off and we've had some good practices and I thought I had them ready to play, but the first half was pretty bad.
"Second half, we didn't start real well. But the last 15 minutes, if we had played the whole game like we did the last 15 minutes we'd be sitting here with a win."
Jacinta Monroe anchored the Seminoles (19-4, 5-2 ACC) with 16 points and 17 rebounds, and four other players finished in double figures.
Italee Lucas, who did not start because she was late for a class, led the Tar Heels (16-4, 4-2 ACC) with a game-high 20 points.
FSU led 36-24 after a sloppy first half by both teams. The Tar Heels turned the ball over 13 times -- the Seminoles recorded 12 -- and UNC shot 8-of-31 from the floor.
UNC continued to struggle to find its shooting touch at the start of the second half, as FSU pushed the lead to 47-28. But the Tar Heels kept chipping away, and two free throws by Chay Shegog at the end of 17-2 run cut the score to 56-54 with 8:41 to play. Shegog had 10 points of her 16 points during the stretch.
But as the clock wound down, the Tar Heels could not find a way to take the lead, cutting the margin to one point three times. Each time, FSU responded to keep its slim lead.
After UNC cut it to 66-65 with 3:25 to play, the Seminoles went on an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach. The Tar Heels never got any closer than six after that.
It was big win for FSU, which was routed at No. 6 Duke 73-43 on Friday and spent the weekend stuck in a hotel because of the snow.
"The team that was more mentally tough was the team that was going to win the basketball game," FSU coach Sue Semrau said. "They put their mind to it. It was good for them to be rewarded. Sometimes you have that toughness and somebody hits a tough shot, but they had that toughness."
It was FSU's first win in Chapel Hill since the 2000-01 season and was the Tar Heels' first conference loss at home in 19 games. It was just UNC's second loss at home in the past 53 games.
"We'll see what that means to our players," Hatchell said. "I'm not sure how much it means to them. So we're going to see how much it means to them and how bad this team wants to go to the NCAA Tournament."
But the thing Hatchell was the most upset about after the game was her team's rebounding. The Seminoles outrebounded the Tar Heels 47-32, and Hatchell called it "absolutely awful" and "unacceptable."
"If they had rebounded, then we would have won this game," Hatchell said. "I can't live with that, so the earliest we can practice is six o'clock in the morning and if ya'll are up, you're welcome to come. We'll be here rebounding at six o'clock."
