Jamie Cherry makes statement

— -- CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Every day after practice at North Carolina, freshman guard Jamie Cherry wants to test herself against a pro.

"She always wants to play one-on-one," said Tar Heels assistant Ivory Latta, an eight-year WNBA veteran. "Even days when we don't have practice, she still wants to play me. I'm telling you, I can't get a break."

Hmmm, does Cherry remind Latta of anyone?

"Everyone says she's kind of like me," said Latta, a standout who helped the Tar Heels advance to the Final Four in 2006 and '07, her final two years at North Carolina. "But I don't know why she's always telling people she can beat me."

"I can," Cherry said. To which Latta shook her head and then smiled broadly, saying, "I love the kid."

Cherry added her name into Tar Heels lore Monday with the game-winning basket with 0.6 seconds left, as No. 4 seed North Carolina survived a rally against No. 5 seed Ohio State 86-84.

"I just try to get to the open space as fast as I can," Cherry said of her philosophy on launching a last-second shot. "I'm just glad I was able to hit it and go to the Sweet 16. Just hearing my teammates talk about doing that last year, I wanted to do it, too."

She will, and it's worth noting that the Tar Heels have made it to the regional semifinals without Diamond DeShields, who was their leading scorer last season as a freshman. DeShields transferred to Tennessee and is sitting out this season. She was considered the centerpiece of an epic recruiting haul by the Tar Heels for the 2013-14 season.

With DeShields averaging 18.0 points and 5.4 rebounds, North Carolina upset No. 1 seed South Carolina in the 2014 Sweet 16, and then gave Stanford a run for its money on the Cardinal's home court before falling 74-65 in the regional final.

This season, North Carolina was without DeShields but had back coach Sylvia Hatchell, who missed the 2013-14 season as she battled leukemia. And two sophomores who came in with DeShields -- Allisha Gray and Stephanie Mavunga -- contributed greatly to Monday's victory. As they have all season for the Tar Heels.

"For me personally, I knew I had to step it up more than last year, and as a team we knew that, too," said Gray, who had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists against the Buckeyes. "Diamond is a very good player, and we have had to make up for that."

Mavunga had a career-high 27 points and had 14 rebounds Monday. She has averaged 14.5 points this season, while Gray is at 15.9. They've been the primary load-carriers for North Carolina, which has been without junior post player Xylina McDaniel since she suffered a leg injury in late December.

The Tar Heels finished sixth in the ACC and fell in overtime to Louisville 77-75 in the league tournament quarterfinals. That game went to extra time because Cherry hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from 40 feet at the end of regulation. It was an exciting shot, but it didn't win the game.

So Monday's shot was even better. And it saved the Tar Heels from an overtime period in which Ohio State would have had the momentum. North Carolina had played well for most of the first half and led by 18 points at the break. In the second half, the Tar Heels led by as many as 20 before the Buckeyes began their inevitable comeback.

You knew it was going to happen. Ohio State's exceptional backcourt of Ameryst Alston and Kelsey Mitchell was only about half as good as usual for the opening 20 minutes because Mitchell wasn't really able to get untracked. She was 2-of-11 for four points in first half, while Alston had 13 points.

Mitchell, who led the nation in scoring, had not been held to single digits all season, and it wasn't going to happen Monday, either. She started to get hot, and the Tar Heels got a little careless with some possessions. It was almost a lethal combination for North Carolina.

Alston finished with 30 points and Mitchell had 25, the last two coming on two free throws that tied the score at 84-84 with 5.1 seconds left. Then Hatchell subbed Cherry into the game. Never mind that she's a rookie reserve who is shooting 31.2 percent from the field for the season. She is extremely quick with the ball, even by Carolina standards, and Hatchell had a feeling it was the right move.

Gray was the inbounds passer and had just told Cherry "you've got to get open."

"She curled, and I threw it to her," Gray said. "And then I'm running behind her, and when she shot, I got a look at it, and I knew it was going in. And I just started celebrating.

"But we still had [six tenths] of a second on the clock, and we had to guard Kelsey because she can shoot from anywhere."

The celebration leaked from the bench to the floor and might have gotten the Tar Heels into trouble had there been just a little more time left. As it was, though, they were judged not to have interfered with Mitchell's heave of the basketball, and North Carolina was in the Sweet 16, where they will face South Carolina again.

Cherry is from Cove City, North Carolina, a small town in the southeastern part of the state between Kinston and New Bern, a little more than two hours' drive from Chapel Hill. At 19, she was still just a kid when Latta, now 30, was starring for the Tar Heels. But she knows how much having Latta around is helping her.

"I couldn't be in a better position as far as learning from someone," Cherry said. "A lot of people tell me our games resemble each other. It's great working with her, and she teaches me a lot every day about being a better point guard."

Oh, and there was no one-on-one showdown between the two after Monday's game. Cherry's shot indisputably won the night, and Latta didn't mind at all.