North Carolina’s Deja Kelly won’t be rattled on her Sweet 16 mission

With 6.5 seconds left in a tied first-round NCAA Tournament game, No. 6 seed North Carolina needed a clutch basket to avoid an upset against St. John’s. At that moment, Theresa Nunn was in the stands anxious to see what the Tar Heels were drawing up. She didn’t know the play, but she knew one thing.

It was “Deja Kelly time.”

Nunn, Kelly’s mother, knew it. North Carolina knew it. St. John’s knew it. Everybody in the stadium knew it.

But the thing with Kelly is that it’s easier to draw up a way to stop her than it is to execute it. “Knowing what LeBron does doesn’t mean you can stop it. Knowing what Steph does doesn’t mean you can stop it,” North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said.

North Carolina inbounded the ball to Kelly, who decided to get to the basket before the play even started. She got a screen at the top of the key and drove left against St. John’s post, Rayven Peeples. Kelly’s too fast to be guarded by a big on the perimeter, so she easily drove to the hoop and finished through contact for the victory-securing play that sent her tumbling at the baseline. She immediately hopped up, turned to her teammates on the bench and screamed in jubilation.

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Coach Banghart drew up a banger of an ATO to set up Deja Kelly’s game-winning…