Paris Kea: 'The Crowd Was Absolutely Amazing, Carmichael Was Literally Shaking'

With a win over No. 1 Notre Dame, UNC women’s basketball snapped a 198 game losing streak for unranked opponents against the top team in the country.

It was also a special day for head coach Sylvia Hatchell, who announced to her team before the game that she was going to be a grandmother.

“So I had a picture of the baby, and so I had it in the locker room,” Hatchell said on her weekly radio show. “And then we handed them out. I told my girls, I said, let me share with you a ‘wow’ moment so I handed them out and they all looked around like, there’s a baby on here.”

Hatchell said that her team was really loose when they took the court against Notre Dame because they had been celebrating the news in the locker room beforehand.

UNC held Notre Dame to 15 points under the Fighting Irish’s season average of 87 points per game while also forcing 20 turnovers.

Hatchell said while Carolina’s defense hasn’t been the best all year, they executed the game plan very well.

“We had a great game plan and they executed to perfection and we got our hands on a lot of loose balls, especially the passes inside to their big girls, and it was just our day and it was our day.”

Senior guard Paris Kea scored 30 points and contributed 10 assists in the win. For her performance, she was named the ESPNW National Player of the Week.

“I think I just liked the challenge,” Paris Kea said. “Any type of challenge, I’m not afraid of it. I kinda just go right at it. Really. It’s like Coach Hatchell said that the pressure’s not on us and I think that’s kind of how we felt.”

Kea said the atmosphere inside Carmichael Arena was amazing and helped the Tar Heels seal the victory.

“The crowd was absolutely amazing,” Kea said. “It was just so, so loud. Like Carmichael was literally shaking.”