It was a big day for a couple of Tar Heel freshmen Sunday at Clemson, as the No. 15 UNC women’s basketball team relied on contributions from Kayla McPherson and Paulina Paris to stave off the Tigers, 69-58. It’s Carolina’s seventh consecutive ACC win, its most since winning 17 in a row between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

McPherson, a redshirt freshman, played her first game in a Tar Heel uniform after missing all of last season and much of this one with various leg injuries, one of which came in her final season of high school basketball. McPherson was more than just a feel-good story, though: she scored eight first-half points and helped stake Carolina to a 36-17 halftime lead.

“She’s been out a long time, and you guys saw glimpses today of how good she’s gonna be for us,” head coach Courtney Banghart said of McPherson after the game. “Seeing her out there, she just fits.”

According to McPherson, Sunday was her first basketball game in 800 days.

McPherson didn’t score a point in the second half, but that’s when Paris’ scoring kicked in. The true freshman scored 13 of her career-high 22 points in the second half, swishing three three-pointers to give her a career-high six on the afternoon. Paris’ scoring explosion picked up an off night from Deja Kelly, who totaled just nine points after scoring at least 18 in the past three games. Paris got her first collegiate start against the Tigers, starting in place of Eva Hodgson. Hodgson missed her second consecutive game due to a non-COVID illness.

“I’m not surprised,” Banghart said of Paris’ performance. “I’m a big fan of Paulina’s game. She’s a really good basketball player. She’s tough. She stays locked in. She’s what we need when we need it.”

Carolina needed every bit of Paris’ 22, as the Tigers came out roaring in the third quarter and cut the Tar Heel lead to as little as four points at the end of the period. A Paris triple to begin the fourth quarter stopped the bleeding, and UNC used a 10-0 run midway through the period to restore a double-digit lead. That lead would never drop to below nine for the rest of the afternoon. The Tar Heels shot 66.7 percent in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

The win moves Carolina to 4-3 on the road this season after it lost three of its first four in true road environments. It also moves the Tar Heels to 16-5 overall and 7-3 in ACC play, good for fourth place in the conference standings. UNC sits just a game behind Notre Dame and Duke (both 8-2), and currently owns head-to-head tiebreakers over both. Florida State sits in third place at 8-3 in league play.

UNC is in the middle of a stretch of four of five games being played on the road, but the lone home game in that period is coming up on Thursday night. Carolina will host Virginia in Carmichael Arena on February 2 at 6 p.m.

 

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dawson Powers

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