After UNC women's basketball loss vs. Duke, Alyssa Ustby passes torch to Lanie Grant

USA Today

28-03-2025

After UNC women's basketball loss vs. Duke, Alyssa Ustby passes torch to Lanie Grant
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What Birmingham Regional NCAA tournament players know about Alabama
What do NCAA Women's Tournament basketball players at Birmingham Regional know about state of Alabama? Not much. That's what we found out.
USA TODAY Sports Network
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – As the clock ticked down in North Carolina's Sweet 16 loss to Duke on Friday, Tar Heels freshman guard Lanie Grant tossed the ball to fellow guard Alyssa Ustby, a graduate student, to take the final shot. As the buzzer sounded, Ustby's layup dropped through the net.
Reality then set in: Ustby was walking away from the program that she helped build at UNC the past five years.
The 17-year-old player who passed her the ball? That's who Ustby is passing the Tar Heel torch to.
'I think it's pretty fitting, how much she helped me,' Grant said. 'I'm happy that I could be the one to get her the ball on her final points.'
Grant, who appeared in 36 games for UNC this season, almost missed the opportunity to cross paths with Ustby.
Grant should be a senior in high school. But after UNC head coach Courtney Banghart told Grant's mom they could use her help as soon as possible, she reclassified and made her way to Chapel Hill a year early.
Although they are five years apart, Grant and Ustby have formed a light-hearted relationship like none other.
'I just like to pick on her and remind her that she's still a child, and she's in college playing with girls that are four, five years older than her,' Ustby told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.
At 23 years old, Ustby proved to be every bit the veteran player that she has been all season in the Tar Heels' 47-38 loss Friday to their in-state rivals, finishing the game with nine points and 10 rebounds.
In her five years in Carolina blue, Ustby scored 1,782 points and became the Tar Heel's No. 1 all-time rebounder, with 1,260.
'Alyssa's superpower is that she has a relentless quest for excellence,' Banghart said. 'When all the dust settles, she'll know that she's leaving her footprint at a place that has had excellence everywhere.'
Ustby feels confident that her 'relentless quest for excellence,' which she shared with fellow graduate guard Lexi Donarski, will continue with Grant and the team's other younger players.
'Lexi and I both just hope that our impact, whether it's infusing girls with confidence or having them learn strategic things from us, can transfer down and they can kind of pick up a torch and lead the program moving forward,' Ustby said.
Grant played for 23 minutes of Friday's game, scoring 4 points, with 2 rebounds and 1 assist. At a couple points, she aggressively drove the lane to give UNC energy.
'We know how to get here now, we know what it feels like to lose on this stage,' Grant said. 'So I think just using that as motivation. And it's expected, at this point, to get back to the Sweet 16.'
Although UNC's season is over, the program seems to be in good hands.
Ansley Gavlak is a student in the University of Georgia's Sports Media Certificate program.