Carolina Wins OT Thriller Over Colorado

Sunday, November 12

Chapel Hill, N.C.

2:00 P.M.

North Carolina

1-1

Colorado

1-1

OT 1

Colorado

North Carolina

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

November 12, 2017 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Final Stats Postgame Quotes

By: Mark Kimmel

CHAPEL HILL - Jamie Cherry and Paris Kea combined for 54 points and North Carolina overcame an 18-point deficit to earn a dramatic 87-80 overtime victory over Colorado on Sunday afternoon.

Kea scored a game-high 28 points and dished out nine assists, while Cherry had 26 points. The back-court duo was 21-of-40 from the field and had 14 assists, nine rebounds and five steals.

Freshman Jocelyn Jones and sophomore Taylor Koenen both recorded double-doubles. Jones had 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Koenen had 10 and 10. Freshman Janelle Bailey added 10.

All-Pac-12 guard Kennedy Leonard had 24 points to lead Colorado (1-1). Alexis Robinson added 16 points and Annika Jank had 15.

Carolina (1-1) struggled to find any kind of rhythm offensively in the first half. The Tar Heels turned it over 13 times and was out-rebounded, 29-19. Colorado led by as many as 18 points and ultimately held a 47-32 advantage at intermission.

Determined to get back in the game, Carolina scored 12 of the first 15 points of the third quarter to claw back within, 50-44. Kea converted a three-point play and Cherry drained her second three-pointer of the game to force Colorado to call timeout with 4:53 left in the third.

Kea drove to the hole to get UNC within 53-51, but Colorado knocked down back-to-back triples to increase its edge to 59-51 heading to the final quarter.

Carolina answered once again with the first eight points of the fourth quarter to tie it up at 59-59, but Leonard got hot from distance, making three of her four 3-pointers in the period to swing the lead back to Colorado, 72-66.

Cherry, well known for making huge shots in her career, knocked down a three-pointer with 18 seconds left in regulation to give Carolina the lead, but Aubrey Knight's layup sent the game into overtime at 74-74.

Kea drove the lane and scored the first bucket of overtime and Carolina never relinquished the lead over the five-minute extra session to earn its first win of the new campaign.

The 18-point comeback is the largest since falling behind by an identical 18 points in the 60-58 win over UT Martin in the first round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels wound up knocking off No. 1 seed South Carolina to reach the Elite 8 that season.

Carolina hosts Radford on Thursday at 6 p.m.