North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart had a baffling take following Virginia Tech loss

The 16th-ranked Virginia Tech women’s basketball team picked up another Top 25 road victory on Sunday afternoon at then No. 24 North Carolina. The Hokies outscored the Tar Heels, 16-7, in overtime to leave Chapel Hil with a 70-61 victory. 

Following the game, North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart meet with the media along with a couple of players to discuss the loss. The Tar Heels coach had an interesting take about the Hokies after falling to 15-8 on the season.

UNC coach Courtney Banghart has a head-scratching take on Virginia Tech

After the game, Banghart had a head-scratching take on Virginia Tech and their defense, who held UNC to 31% shooting in the game.

“Defense is not what they do well,'' Banghart said. “They’re really good offensively, they shoot you out of games.’’

Let’s compare Virginia Tech’s defense to North Carolina’s, according to David Cunningham of Tech Sideline. The Hokies ranked seventh in the country in blocks, compared to 36th for the Tar Heels. Virginia Tech’s field goal defense is 26th compared to UNC’s 38th, the Hokies scoring defense is 80th to UNC’s 100th ranking and 3FG% defense is ranked No. 66 for the Hokies, compared to the Tar Heels ranking 188th.

Sunday, Virginia Tech held North Carolina to 33% from behind the arc, they blocked five shots, and allowed the Tar Heels to shoot just 31% from the field. They held North Carolina to 61 points over four quarters and a five-minute overtime. UNC had scoring quarters of 12-8-19-16-7. 

If there is one big takeaway from the game, it’s the defense that Virginia Tech played. Seriously, they held a Top 25 team to 61 points on the road, with 14 of those 61 points coming from the free-throw line. The Hokies forced 11 UNC turnovers and scored 10 points off of those. North Carolina forced 17 Hokies’ turnovers and turned those into just six points. 

It’s coach speak but to be fair, with the shooting struggles of Elizabeth Kitley, the Virginia Tech offense going into scoring droughts in the second half and turning the ball over 17 times, the only reason the Hokies headed back to Blacksburg was because of their defense. Defense wins games and that was the case Sunday in Chapel Hill. I guess five straight losses to the Hokies is getting to Banghart.