University of North Carolina Athletics
Women's Basketball to Face Clemson
June 21, 1999 | Women's Basketball
February 2, 1999
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Juana Brown established new career highs in points (29) and rebounds (12) in an 88-66 homecourt win over Wake Forest on Jan. 31. She scored 22 of her points in the second half, when Wake twice drew within three.
LaQuanda Barksdale scored 24 points and added 10 rebounds for her third double-double in the past five games. Yanick Clay and Jackie Higgins added 10 points each for UNC, while Wake Forest was led by Emon McMillians 17 points.
North Carolina Tar Heels
Record: 21-4 overall, 8-3 ACC
Head coach: Sylvia Hatchell
Alma mater: Carson-Newman, 1974
Record at UNC: 262-129 (13th year)
Career record: 534-209 (24th year)
Assistant head coach: Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches: Ann Hancock, Shannon Spencer
Current ranking: #13 AP, #10 USA Today
Clemson Tigers
Record: 17-4, 7-4 ACC
Head coach: Jim Davis
Alma mater: Tennessee Wesleyan, 1970
Record at Clemson: 250-114 (12th year)
Career record: 269-122 (13th year)
Assistant coaches: Carey Green, Courtney Johnson, Yolanda Settles
Current ranking: #17 AP, #18 USA Today
1997-98 record: 25-8 (12-4 ACC)
On the Air:
Radio Tar Heel Sports Network; Flagship station: 1360*WCHL (Play-by-play: Stephen Gates)
News to note:
The UNC-Clemson rivalry:
UNC Head to Head Clemson 21-4 record 17-4 .437 fg % .430 .416 opponent fg % .363 .312 3 pt fg % .339 .284 opponent 3 pt fg % .285 5.0 3 pt fg per game 3.8 16.2 3 pt attempts per game 10.5 .671 free throw % .686 43.6 rebound average 42.9 +2.1 rebound margin +7.1 85.2 points per game 74.7 69.4 opponent points per game 58.0
Scouting the Tigers:
Clemson is led in scoring by senior guard Amy Geren, who averages 14.7 points per game and ranks second in the ACC in three-pointers per game with an average of 1.9. Three other seniors average double-figure points: Itoro Umo and Natasha Anderson contribute 12.1 each and Nikki Blassingame averages 10.2.
Umo leads the ACC in assists with 6.1 per game.
As a team, Clemson ranks high in defense. The Tigers lead the league in scoring defense (58.0 ppg) and field goal percentage defense (.363).
Quite a crowd:
The Tar Heels Jan. 22 game with Duke drew a Carmichael Auditorium capacity crowd of 10,000, the largest ever at a North Carolina womens home game and the fourth-largest in ACC history. The Tar Heels previous high in attendance (and the previous No. 4 ACC crowd) was 9,450, set Feb. 5, 1995, against Virginia.
Falling records:
Nikki Teasleys 15 assists against Georgia Tech established a UNC single-game record. The old mark of 14 was set by Emily Johnson Murphy, now the teams director of basketball operations, on Jan. 20, 1990, against Duke.
Shooting together, scoring together:
Four Tar Heel starters*Nikki Teasley, Juana Brown, Chanel Wright and LaQuanda Barksdale* average between 15.2 and 13.6 points per game, which ranks them all among the top 13 scorers in the ACC. No other school in the conference has more than three players among the top 15.
The top Tar Heels attempts are just as close together as their points. All four have attempted between 303 and 292 field goals this season.
High (scoring) Heels:
The Tar Heels scoring average of 85.2 points per game is the highest in the ACC and seventh-highest in the country. Three times this season Carolina has scored 100 or more points and only three times*in losses to UCLA (86-68), N.C. State (87-70), and Duke (93-71)*has UNC failed to score at least 75 points.
Barksdale does it all:
Sophomore forward LaQuanda Barksdale, who averaged 10 minutes a game last season backing up All-American Tracy Reid, has made the most of her expanded role. Starting at forward, Barksdale is averaging 13.6 points and 8.7 rebounds. She set new career highs in scoring in consecutive games with 22 points against Hampton and then 26 against Wake Forest two days later. Against Hampton, she hit her first eight field goal attempts and also grabbed 11 rebounds. At Wake Forest, she was 10-for-17 from the field in the return to her hometown of Winston-Salem and also added six rebounds and three blocks.
She has totaled nine double-doubles, the most in the ACC this season. Her standout performances include a 16 point, 19 rebound outing against Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Her boards (9 offensive) in that game tied a Hart Recreation Center record. Against Virginia on Jan. 18, she had a double-double before halftime and went on to total 17 points and 15 rebounds for the game.
Watching the polls:
After two losses in a three-day span Jan. 22-24, North Carolina fell to 14th in the AP poll, the teams first time out of the top 10 all season. UNC is 10th in the USA Today/ESPN poll, the lowest since the preseason poll.
Week AP USA Today preseason 10 7 11/16 5 7 11/23 5 5 11/30 9 8 12/7 7 7 12/14 7 6 12/21 6 6 12/28 6 6 1/4 6 6 1/11 7 6 1/18 7 6 1/25 14 10 2/1 13 10Teasley in the lead:
As she did last year, Nikki Teasley leads the Tar Heels in assists with 5.8 per game. This year, however, she is also leading the team in scoring with 15.2 points per game.
Teasley has been the teams high scorer nine times this season. Against Florida State on Dec. 5, she hit the three-pointer that tied the game at 94-94 with 13 seconds to play and forced the overtime, then scored seven points in overtime as UNC pulled away to win 112-101. She scored a career-high 32 points in that game and earned ACC Player of the Week honors the following Monday.
Teasley also leads the team, and the conference, in steals with 65. That total is already eight more than she stole all of last year and puts her on pace to earn a place among UNCs top-10 season totals for steals.
Teasleys 15 assists against Georgia Tech were a career high and a school record. Her single-game assist total is the best in the ACC this season and is tied with three other players for the best in the NCAA.
Wright moves into 9th:
Upon hitting a three-pointer with 4:42 left to play against Hampton on Dec. 31, senior Chanel Wright moved onto UNCs top 10 alltime scoring chart. Her 13 points in that game bumped her career total up to 1,556, surpassing the 1,551 points scored by 10th-place Kathy Wilson from 1985-88.
Her total now stands at 1,678, ninth overall and 38 points behind eighth-place Marion Jones.
Wright, who also celebrated her 21st birthday on the day she moved into 10th place, is averaging 14.4 points per game. A preseason pick for All-ACC honors and a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year award, she boasts a career scoring average of 14.3. This season, she has established new career highs for scoring (33 against St. Johns) and rebounding (11 against Kansas).
North Carolina Career Scoring
1. Tracy Reid (1995-98) 2,200 2. Tonya Sampson (1991-94) 2,143 3. Charlotte Smith (1992-95) 2,094 4. Pam Leake (1983-86) 2,001 5. Tresa Brown (1981-84) 1,931 6. Kathy Crawford (1980-83) 1,806 7. Dawn Royster (1984-87) 1,778 8. Marion Jones (1994-97) 1,716 9. Chanel Wright (1996-99) 1,678 10. Bernie McGlade (1977-80) 1,604Welcome back to the team:
Tracy Reid, Carolinas alltime leading scorer, will work with the team this semester as a student assistant coach while enrolled in classes to finish up her undergraduate degree in communications. Reid, who played for the Tar Heels from 1995-98, earned WNBA Rookie of the Year honors last summer while playing for the Charlotte Sting. While at UNC, she was named ACC Player of the Year in both 1997 and 98.
Diagnostic surgery for Davis:
Senior center Natasha Davis underwent diagnostic arthroscopic surgery on her right knee Jan. 21st and is expected to resume practicing within approximately three weeks.
Davis had been experiencing pain and weakness in her knee since a fall during a game in mid-December. The surgery, performed by Dr. Tim Taft, Director of Sports Medicine at UNC, revealed bruising of the bone in Davis knee. The injury did not need to be surgically repaired and was expected to require several weeks of rehabilitation.
In line for honors:
Senior Chanel Wright and sophomore Nikki Teasley were both named preseason candidates for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year award and for All-ACC honors.
North Carolina is one of only three schools nationally and the only one in the ACC to place two players among the top 20 candidates for the Naismith award. UNC is also the only school to place two players on the preseason All-ACC team.
Both Wright and Teasley are former ACC Rookies of the Year.
New career highs:
Four of UNCs regular starters have already logged career-high performances this season.
Busy schedule:
The Tar Heels played 16 games in November and December, more than any other Division I womens team in the country and more than any Tar Heel team had ever played before the start of the new year.
Upping the total were four exempt games*one in the State Farm Tip-off Classic and three in the Rainbow Wahine Classic*plus two December conference games.
UNC in the NCAA Standings (Jan. 25):
Team scoring offense 7th (85.0) Scoring margin 15th (18.6)UNC in the ACC Standings (Feb. 2):
Team scoring offense 1st (85.2) Steals 1st (12.4) Turnover margin 1st (7.0) Scoring margin 3rd (15.8) Three-pointers per game 3rd (5.0) locked shots 4th (3.1) Three-point percentage 4th (.312) Field goal percentage 5th (.437) Scoring defense 5th (69.4) Free throw percentage 5th (.671) Rebound margin 6th (2.1) Field goal percentage defense 6th (.416)Individual ACC rankings (Feb. 2):
Scoring: Nikki Teasley, 7th (15.2), Juana Brown, 10th (14.7); Chanel Wright, 12th (14.1); LaQuanda Barksdale, 13th (13.6)
Rebounds: Barksdale, 4th (8.7)
Free throw percentage: Jessica Gaspar, 2nd (.796) Wright, 6th (.752); Teasley, 7th (.718)
Assists: Teasley, 2nd (5.8)
Steals: Teasley, 1st (2.7); Gaspar, 4th (2.0); Brown, 9th (1.7)
Blocks: Barksdale, T3rd (1.1)
Three-point %: Brown, 3rd (.409); Teasley, 7th (.315)
Threes per game: Teasley, 4th (1.8); Brown 7th (1.6)
Hatchell's 250th UNC win:
North Carolinas win over Florida State on Dec. 5 marked Sylvia Hatchells 250th victory at the Tar Heel helm.
Additionally, the win over Georgia Tech on Dec. 3 was Hatchells 100th regular season ACC victory at North Carolina.
Hatchell took over the reins prior to the
1986-87 season and earned her first win in the season opener, 96-79 over Northwestern State in the LSU Crawfish Classic on Nov. 28, 1986.
Over her 12 years in Chapel Hill, Hatchells teams have averaged 20 wins per season. In the past seven seasons, the Tar Heels have averaged 25 wins.
Hatchell, a native of Gastonia, N.C., and a 1974 graduate of Carson-Newman, has a career record of 534-209. She began her career as a junior varsity coach while earning a masters degree at the University of Tennessee, then went on to earn AIAW and NAIA national championships at Francis Marion before settling at North Carolina. Upon leading the Tar Heels to an NCAA title in 1994, she became the only basketball coach to claim AIAW, NAIA and NCAA Division I titles She earned her 500th career win on Jan. 22, 1998, with a 67-64 win over N.C. State.
Gaspar great at the line:
Senior guard Jessica Gaspar is shooting .796 from the line this season, the second best average in the ACC and best on the UNC team. Her .822 in ACC games ranks third in the league.
Gaspar is within shooting range of the best free throw season ever by a UNC player, a record currently held by Tonya Sampsons .818 during the 1993-94 season.
Her current career average of .785 is equal to the UNC record, set by Eileen McCann from 1981-84.
Gaspar is 74-93 from the line this season and 37-45 in the teams ACC games.
Injury update:
After starting the first 22 games of the season, sophomore guard Juana Brown missed the Jan. 24 Georgia Tech game with a left ankle sprain and mid-foot strain. Brown initially injured her left foot and ankle in the Jan. 18 game at Virginia, then aggravated the injury during the Jan. 22 game against Duke. X-rays performed the day after the Georgia Tech proved negative and Brown was listed as day-to-day leading up to the Jan. 28 game against FSU. She was able to start that game and scored 17 points.
Aloha, Hawaii:
The Tar Heels spent Thanksgiving week in Hawaii, competing in the Rainbow Wahine Classic in Honolulu. There, the Tar Heels beat St. Johns 77-67 on Nov. 27, lost 86-68 to UCLA on Nov. 28 and beat host Hawaii 75-72 on Nov. 29 to claim third place in the tournament.
Senior Chanel Wright scored a career-high 33 points in the St. Johns game and earned a spot on the all-tournament team.
Other standout performances:
In between games, players learned the hula at a luau and several also tried surfing.
Team captains:
The Tar Heel captains for this season are seniors Yanick Clay, Jessica Gaspar and Chanel Wright, and sophomore Nikki Teasley.
Holiday cheers:
Since 1986, when Sylvia Hatchell took over as UNCs coach, the Tar Heels are a combined 83-13 in games played during the month of December. Seven times in the last nine years, including both the 1998-99 and the 1997-98 seasons, Carolina has made it through December undefeated.
Higgins on target:
Sophomore forward Jackie Higgins, a junior college All-America last season, is shooting a team-best 51.3 percent from the field and providing 9.5 points per game off the bench. Her 5.9 rebounding average is second best on the team.
At 6-feet, shes regularly asked to defend and shoot over players four, six and even 10 inches taller. Still, Higgins has put in her share of strong performances, and not just in the weight room, where she has broken most of the teams lifting records. During the Tar Heels three games in Hawaii, Higgins came off the bench to average 12 points and 7.6 rebounds. Against Tennessee State, she grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds and against Hampton she totaled a season-high 14 points. Against Clemson on Jan. 4, she scored 12 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Against N.C. State, she tied her career high with 14 points.
Early signees for the Tar Heels:
Statesboro, Ga., Southeast Bulloch High
Asheville, N.C., T.C. Roberson High
Blanch, N.C., Bartlett Yancey Senior High
Detroit, Mich., Detroit Country Day School
ACC Champs Again and Again:
In an impressive run, North Carolina has won four of the past five ACC Tournament championships. To claim their most recent, in 1998, the Tar Heels won three straight games against ranked teams: 76-56 over No. 15 Virginia, 56-52 over No. 8 Duke and 81-50 over No. 16 Clemson. Tracy Reid was the tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by Nikki Teasley and Chanel Wright. Juana Brown earned second-team honors.
Recapping the 1998 NCAA Tournament:
North Carolina reached the Mideast Regional Final last season before falling 76-70 to the Tennessee team that went on to win the NCAA title. UNC led by 12 with 7:34 to play before the Lady Vols stormed back to win the game. Even though UNC didnt reach the Final Four, the Tar Heels were ranked No. 3 in the final coaches poll.
En route to the regional final, North Carolina toppled Howard 91-71 in the first round, Florida International 85-72 in the second and Illinois 80-74 in the regional semifinal.
The NCAA appearance was North Carolinas 11th overall and its seventh in 12 years under coach Sylvia Hatchell.
