UNC Women's Basketball Tops No. 11 NC State; Fourth Ranked Win this Season

The giant slayers caught another one.

The No. 22 UNC women’s basketball team picked up its fourth ranked win of the season Sunday afternoon in a sold-out Carmichael Arena, defeating No. 11 NC State 56-47.

Ranked win ✅
Sellout crowd ✅
Alums home ✅

Quite a day at Carmichael #GoHeels | @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/0rUSsrJUAT

— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) January 15, 2023

The victory was seen by a standing-room-only crowd of 6,319, including a who’s who of Carolina royalty: head football coach Mack Brown, head women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance and former head men’s basketball coach Roy Williams. It was Carmichael Arena’s first sellout since January of 2015.

The raucous fans were treated to some ugly basketball at first, as the Tar Heels and Wolfpack combined to shoot just 15-59 (25.4 percent) in a sluggish first half. Senior guard Eva Hodgson, held to zero points in each of her previous two games, provided six points on a pair of three-pointers in the half, but she was the only Tar Heel to shoot better than 50 percent. Deja Kelly, Kennedy Todd-Williams and Alyssa Ustby combined for just 12 points between them.

Fortunately for Carolina, NC State was just as frigid from the floor. Jakia Brown-Turner provided 10 points for the Wolfpack, but all other players scored just 11.

As was the case in last year’s meeting in Chapel Hill, NC State came out on the front foot in the third quarter, opening with an 8-2 spurt and forcing head coach Courtney Banghart to use an early timeout. Carolina found its footing after that, with a pair of threes from Hodgson and Todd-Williams pacing the offense for the remainder of the period. The Wolfpack took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.

It expanded to 34-31 after a pair of free throws from Brown-Turner, but UNC then unleashed an 8-0 run with by far its best offense of the day. Todd-Williams energized the Carmichael crowd with a steal, layup and the foul to give Carolina the lead back, 36-34. Clutch buckets from freshman Paulina Paris helped stave off repeated attempts by the Wolfpack to rally, but it was sophomore Destiny Adams who truly put the game on ice. Adams scored eight consecutive points for the Tar Heels in the final stretch, including a pair of three-pointers from the corner in front of the rowdy UNC bench. Her second gave Carolina a seven-point lead with 1:31 to play.

Free throws by Ustby and Todd-Williams finished off the afternoon and only added to the celebratory atmosphere inside the arena. It’s UNC’s third win in four tries at home against the Wolfpack, with each coming against a ranked NC State team. It also gives the Tar Heels four against ranked opposition in this season alone, already more than the 2021-22 year and the program’s most in one season since 2014-15.

Ustby finished with just nine points but pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds. Kelly, who was held off the score sheet entirely in Carolina’s last game against the Wolfpack, scored five. Adams and Paris combined for 16, part of an 18-5 advantage for UNC in bench points.

The Tar Heels have now won three straight conference games after starting ACC play 0-3. The win moves Carolina to 12-5 overall. The team will have a chance at another ranked win in front of another big crowd when it hosts No. 16 Duke in Chapel Hill on Thursday night at 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.

Featured image via UNC Women’s Basketball on Twitter

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UNC Women’s Basketball Tops No. 11 NC State; Fourth Ranked Win this Season

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