That lone “L” looked mighty ugly sitting atop the string of nine consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference “Ws,” so the sixth-ranked University of Miami women’s basketball team showed up at BankUnited Center Wednesday night with extra fire and a deep bag of defensive tricks.

The Canes scrapped, clawed, stole the ball 22 times, and avenged the conference-opening loss to No. 22 North Carolina with a 61-37 rout that left longtime Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell shaking her head.

It was the school’s lowest-ever point total in an ACC game and second-lowest ever. North Carolina committed a season-high 35 turnovers, and UM took advantage, scoring 39 points off those miscues.

“When you score that many points off turnovers, you don’t have to do a whole lot of anything else,” Hatchell said.

“It came down to guard play. Theirs were extremely physical and did an excellent job,” Hatchell said.

UM improved to 21-3 overall and 10-1 in the ACC. It was the Canes’ 38th consecutive win at BankUnited Center, the nation’s third-longest home win streak.

“We enjoyed the scrum, the physicality,” said UM coach Katie Meier. “I’m really happy we don’t have to be scoring 85 points to win basketball games. We got a little frustrated offensively, but we didn’t lose our composure.”

Meier said the team was motivated by the loss at North Carolina on Jan. 2, and the loss to the Tar Heels in last year’s ACC tournament.

“The last two times we played them, we lost, and didn’t play particularly well,” Meier said. “We usually have one tank of fuel. I told them you’ve got two tanks tonight. When you think the one’s about to run out, flip the switch and go to your second tank, that’s the other game they beat us and use that as your fuel.”

The way the Canes were grabbing for the ball late in the game, it was clear they had extra fuel in reserve.

Guard Riquna Williams was back in the starting lineup after missing the end of the Clemson game following a hard fall that left her with a sore neck. She showed no signs of injury, nailing three three-pointers in the first eight minutes to help the Hurricanes to a 17-4 lead. She had extra incentive to play well because her grandmother, who had been ill, made the trip from Pahokee. Williams gave her “Granny” 17 points and five steals to cheer about.

Shenise Johnson led UM with 19 points. Stefanie Yderstrom had a career-high seven steals to go with 10 points.

“We didn’t play Miami basketball the last time, so it felt good to win that way,” Johnson said.

The Tar Heels missed 12 of their first 13 shots, and shot 5-of-28 for 15 points in the second half. Miami held Carolina’s 6-5 senior center Chay Shegog to six points on just six attempts. Shegog had been averaging 16.8 points and 13 attempts per game.

“We have so many different defenses that I can tell which ones the other team’s been preparing for,” Meier said. “So we’ll go through our bag of tricks, see how they’re beating the one, and throw one out they haven’t prepared for yet. … Our team did a lot of film study for this game on our schemes and traps, and it showed.”

UM travels to No. 8 Maryland on Sunday.