UNC Women Choked As Badly As Men Did

How about this? Just exactly one week after the North Carolina men's basketball team choked away a shot at making the Final Four, the women's team choked away a shot at the national championship game. The Lady Heels held a 48-36 lead over Tennessee with over 8:00 left in the game after a furious run put some distance between the two teams. However, the Vols went on a 20-2 run to end the game, leaving the Heels losers in the Final Four for the second straight year.

And what a beautiful mess it was! The Heels turned the ball over repeatedly to the Vols' pressure defense [Tennessee recorded a Final Four record 20 steals]. Carolina missed their final eight shots ... and the only two points scored by UNC was a couple of Ivory Latta free throws. Stars LaToya Pringle and Camille Little fouled out trying to deal with All-Everything Candice Parker.

Exactly one week ago, the UNC men's team choked away a game against Georgetown. In that contest, UNC was outscored 31-9 to end the game. Both games were "revenge games" of sorts, as G'town spent the weekend reliving the 1982 national championship loss to Carolina ... while Tennessee avenged a loss to UNC in last year's Elite 8, which occured on this same Cleveland floor.