College women's basketball: North Carolina runs past Bucknell in first round

By Jami Frankenberry
For The Daily Item

Sun, May 18 2008

— NORKOLK, Va. -- For its first-round NCAA tournament game, the University of North Carolina women's basketball team sported warm-up shirts with a simple message printed across the back: "The world is our dance floor."
Looking every bit like a team that's going to be dancing a while -- maybe until it reaches its third consecutive Final Four -- the Tar Heels dominated from start to finish in an 85-50 victory over Bucknell on Sunday afternoon at Old Dominion University.
North Carolina (31-2), the top seed in the New Orleans regional, led 16-0 less than five minutes in, and 16th-seeded Bucknell was scoreless until 14:45 remained in the first half.
The Tar Heels play Georgia in the second round Tuesday.
Bucknell's season ended at 16-16, with the team's first NCAA appearance since 2002.
On Sunday, North Carolina got a complete effort with five double-figure scorers, and an inside-outside game that picked apart Bucknell's zone defense.
"They're just really impressive," Bison coach Kathy Fedorjaka said. "With that zone, we had to kind of pick where we were going to make a play. We really had to play tight, and they had answers on the perimeter as well and have really got some problems all over the floor."
Bucknell, the Patriot League tournament champion after finishing fifth in the regular season, couldn't recover from a dismal start.
The Bison's first shot attempt -- a Lauren Schober jumper -- was sent into the crowd by North Carolina's LaToya Pringle, and things didn't get much better after that.
Pringle highlighted an athletic front line, blocking three shots during the Tar Heels' 16-0 start. Pringle finished with five blocks and became the Tar Heels' career leader with 331.
"Once you block a couple people get a little timid," Pringle said. "That helps us on the inside."
The Bison matched North Carolina in size -- both teams started three players at 6-feet or taller -- but not in athleticism.
Pringle, Erlana Larkins and Rashanda McCants helped North Carolina control the paint, and the trio combined for 36 points and 14 rebounds in the first half.
The Tar Heels outscored Bucknell 26-10 in the paint during the first half and finished the game with a 54-41 rebounding edge.
Pringle led North Carolina with 19 points, followed by Larkins and McCants with 15 each.
"They're extremely athletic, extremely long and extremely quick," Fedorjaka said.
North Carolina, ranked second nationally in the Associated Press and coaches' polls, started quickly and rarely slowed down.
The Tar Heels scored on seven of their opening nine possessions. Freshman point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid put an exclamation point on the 16-0 start with back-to-back 3-pointers, the last with 15:31 left until halftime.
Bucknell, meanwhile, missed all of its first 11 shots and went scoreless on the opening 10 possessions. The Bison shot just 27 percent (10 of 37) before halftime.
"We had a lot of open looks," Bison guard Kesha Champion said. "There was just a little cap on the rim. It just didn't go down for us."
Schober kept Bucknell close midway through the first half, scoring 10 points during a four-minute span. She buried two 3-pointers, a jump shot and two free throws to pull the Bision within 35-23 with 5:42 left.
That was as close as it got.
The Tar Heels responded with a 10-2 spurt while Bucknell scored on just one of its final 10 first-half possessions of the first half.
Schober led Bucknell with 13 points and was the team's only double-figure scorer.

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