SMITH CENTER/CHAPEL HILL UNC heads onto the floor for its second and last women’s basketball exhibition game of the season, and once again there’s a big connection with Coach Sylvia Hatchell.

While the first game was a win over Francis Marion, tonight’s visitor is Carson-Newman. Hatchell has a connection with both, as her head coaching experience before coming to UNC was at FMU and she is an alumna of CNC.

The Tar Heels start the same players that they had against the Patriots, as Chay Shegog is again at center with Laura Broomfield and freshman Tierra Ruffin-Pratt at the forwards and Cetera DeGraffenreid and She’la White in the backcourt.

It turns out to be a very comfortable victory, as the Tar Heels roll 121-52 with six players in double figures.

Hatchell had said at the team’s media day before the opener that incumbent DeGraffenreid would start the FMU game and White against CNC.

That turned out to be technically true. But sophomore Italee Lucas was supposed to start at shooting guard in both times and has twice been disciplined for missing a 10 o’clock class.

The Eagles hold on for a few minutes, trailing only 12-10 following Katlin Moore’s 3-pointer with 16:52 left in the half.

Then the Tar Heels kick it up a notch, scoring the next 14 points and that sets the tone for the rest of the night.

Freshman Krista Gross comes off the bench to lead the way with 16 points while Broomfield has 14 points to go with 11 rebounds.

DeGraffenreid and Lucas chip in 15 points each, followed by White with 12 and Ruffin-Pratt 10.

Mandy Mendenhall’s 11 points lead the Eagles.

UNC shoots 53.6 percent for the game to CNC’s 28.1, wins the rebound battle 66-33 and the turnover tussle 34-16.

They said it …

UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell: “I told the supervisor of referees, you might have to send two crews, one for first half and one for second half (because The Tar Heels run so much.) Some of them that we’ve had in the past struggled to keep up the pace for 40 minutes.”

DeGraffenreid: “”We were half-court trapping the whole game. When they broke down our press, we went over how to handle that, because Francis Marion did a lot of breaking down our press. … A lot of my points came from getting steals. I know a lot of players on our team tonight had four and five steals, so it was us getting steals and then being able to get the ball out.”

Shegog, on UNC’s’ rebounding dominance: “When we lose the boards, we don’t want to practice after the boards. It’s like torture. We make sure we win the boards every time, and get inside position.”

What does it all mean?

That the Tar Heels remain on track for putting together a multi-pronged attack to begin the regular season.

Stars of the game

1. Broomfield, for her double-double.

2. Gross, for being the leading scorer off the bench as a freshman.

3. DeGraffenreid.

Play of the game

Shegog’s bucket on a Ruffin-Pratt assist to make it 10-4.

On deck

UNC vs. College of Charleston, Friday, 7 p.m.

Carson-Newman vs. Anderson, Sunday, 2 p.m.