University of North Carolina Athletics
Women's Basketball Gets Set for the Tournament
June 21, 1999 | Women's Basketball
March 11, 1999
Midwest Region
First and second rounds
Carmichael Auditorium
Chapel Hill, N.C.
March 12
6 p.m. Alabama vs. Grambling
8:30 p.m. (approx.) North Carolina vs. Northeastern
(Second game will begin 30 minutes after conclusion of first)
March 14
6:30 p.m. First round winners
North Carolina
Overall record: 26-7ACC record: 11-5
Head coach: Sylvia Hatchell
Alma mater: Carson-Newman, 1974
Record at UNC: 267-132 (13th year)
Career record: 539-212 (24th year)
Assistant head coach: Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches: Ann Hancock, Shannon Spencer
Current ranking: #14 AP, #13 USA Today
On the air: Tar Heel Sports Network (Flagship station: 1360*WCHL)
Play-by-play: Stephen Gates
Leaders:
Scoring - Nikki Teasley, 15.9; Juana Brown, 14.9; LaQuanda Barksdale, 14.0; Chanel Wright, 13.9
Fg percentage - Jackie Higgins, 50.7
Rebounding - Barksdale, 8.0
Assists - Teasley, 5.9
Steals - 2.6
First round matchup: North Carolina vs. Northeastern
Northeastern University
Location: Boston, Mass.Conference: America East
1998-99 record: 22-7, 13-5
Coach: Joy Malchodi
Year at school: 19th
Assistant coaches: Cathy Coakley, Karen Pinkos, Marisa Petreccia
UNC vs. Northeastern
The teams have met once just before. North Carolina and Northeastern played on Dec. 27, 1982, in the Queens Holiday Tournament in Flushing, N.Y. The Tar Heels won 79-57.
Scouting the Huskies
Northeastern is led in scoring by senior guard Tesha Tinsley, who averages 21.7 points. Lani Lawrence, a 6-3 sophomore, leads the team in rebounding with 8.9 per game.
Tinsley and senior forward Betsy Palecek both earned All-Conference honors and Tinsley was the runner-up for America East Player of the Year.
Northeastern beat Maine 57-55 in the America East tournament final to advance to its first NCAA Tournament. Palecek made a lay-up on a pass from Tinsley to put the Huskies up by the winning margin with six seconds remaining.
Familiar faces
The current Tar Heels and Huskies have not met in a collegiate game, but several are well acquainted from high school play. Northeastern's Tesha Tinsley and Felicia Burroughs and North Carolina's Chanel Wright all attended Western High in Baltimore, Md. and played for the basketball team there.
Tinsley and Burroughs had a head start in scouting UNC for the first-round matchup. At Wright's invitation, they attended the Tar Heels' Dec. 17 game at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
Tinsley in the books
Tesha Tinsley's 628 points this year mark the most by a Northeastern player in a single season. She also holds the school's single-season record for assists (133 and counting).
Tinsley has been directly involved*either by assisting or scoring herself*in 51.1 percent of the Huskies' points this season, the highest percentage in the nation.
Possible second round opponents
University of Alabama
Location: Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Conference: Southeastern
1998-99 record: 19-10, 7-7
Coach: Rick Moody
Year at school: 10th
Assistant coaches: Pat Charity, Michael Murphy, C.C. Moorer
UNC vs. Alabama
Carolina leads the series 5-3 and won the most recent matchup, on Dec. 20, 1998. At the ACC-SEC Challenge in Myrtle Beach, S.C., the Tar Heels led 55-43 at halftime and went on to a 90-75 win. UNC sophomore Juana Brown hit six three-pointers and finished the game with a team-leading 26 points. Nikki Teasley scored 22 and Chanel Wright 15.
For Alabama, Dominique Canty scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
Grambling University
Location: Grambling, La.
Conference: Southwestern Athletic Conference
1998-99 record: 25-4, 16-0
Coach: David *Rusty* Ponton
Year at school: Second
Assistant coach: Sharon Carter-Perkins
Undergraduate assistants: Corey Allen, Tameka Lands
On a streak
The Tigers have won their last 21 games and own the nation's longest home winning streak, 55 games.
They are making their fifth NCAA appearance, their fourth straight. Their 12th seed is the highest ever received by a SWAC men's or women's team.
Senior guard Termika Mitchell leads the team with 18 points per game.
Carolina News to Note
North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament
Seed and bracket history
Tar Heels reach ACC title game
North Carolina reached the ACC Tournament championship game for the fifth time in the past six years, but lost to Clemson in the final. The game was the first all year that UNC has lost after leading at halftime. The Tar Heels were up 43-36 at the break, but Clemson closed quickly and took the lead with 13:54 to play in the game. Carolina never led again.
Sophomore Juana Brown led the Tar Heels in scoring with 23 points. Nikki Teasley added 19 while LaQuanda Barksdale logged her 10th double-double of the season with 11 points, 10 rebounds.
Quarterfinals: UNC 87, Georgia Tech 71
Semifinals: UNC 83, Virginia 70
Finals: Clemson 87-UNC 72
Brown, Teasley, Wright earn honorsSophomores Juana Brown and Nikki Teasley and senior Chanel Wright were named to the All-ACC Tournament first team. Teasley and Wright also made the first team last year, while Brown was on the second team in 1998.
In 1999, Brown averaged 15.3 points and led the team with 23 against Clemson. Against Georgia Tech, she led UNC in rebounding with nine and for the tournament was 10-for-11 from the free throw line.
Teasley averaged 20 points, six rebounds and six assists and scored 25 in Carolina's win over Virginia.
Wright led the team in scoring against Georgia Tech (18) and Virginia (27) and averaged 17.7 points for the tournament.
Wright can see clearly now
Chanel Wright left the court with 3:19 to play in the ACC Championship game after suffering a corneal laceration to her left eye. While she fought for an offensive rebound, Wright's eye was raked by an unidentified elbow or finger.
The senior missed several practices while her eye healed but is not expected to be hampered by the injury during this weekend's games.
Four scorers
Four of the Tar Heel starters*Nikki Teasley, Juana Brown, Chanel Wright and LaQuanda Barksdale* average between 15.9 and 13.9 points per game, which ranks each of them among the top 12 scorers in the ACC.
Balance in the ranks
When all five starters*Chanel Wright, LaQuanda Barksdale, Nikki Teasley, Yanick Clay and Juana Brown*scored in double figures against Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament, it marked the 10th time this season that at least five UNC players have hit double digits in the same game. It was only the second time, however, that those five have been the starters. The other time it happened was Jan. 24 at Georgia Tech, when Jessica Gaspar started in place of Juana Brown, who was out with a sprained ankle.
Against Hampton on Dec. 31, a season-high of six players scored in double figures.
Record-breaking passes
With a total of 194 assists, sophomore guard Nikki Teasley is now the proud owner of Carolina's single-season record. The old mark was 169, set by Pam Hammond in 1985. Teasley's 170th assist came against Duke on Feb. 21, on an inbounds play to Yanick Clay with 7:44 remaining in the first half.
Teasley also owns the Tar Heels' single-game assist record, set with 15 at Georgia Tech on Jan. 24. The old mark of 14 was set by Emily Johnson Murphy, now the team's director of basketball operations, on Jan. 20, 1990, against Duke.
Just a sophomore, Teasley has led the ACC in assists in both of her seasons. She is the first player to lead the conference in back-to-back years since Virginia's Dawn Staley in 1990-91 and 91-92.
Give and take
With Nikki Teasley on the court, teammates never know when they're going to get the ball and opponents never know when they're going to lose it. She leads the ACC in both steals and assists and is the first player to accomplish that double since Virginia's Dawn Staley did so in 1991-92.
Teasley's 87 steals lead the ACC this season and rank as Carolina's ninth-best season mark. Eighth place is held by Marion Jones, who had 99 take-aways in 1997.
High (scoring) Heels
With an average of 83.5 points per game, the Tar Heels lead the ACC in scoring and rank seventh nationally. This season Carolina has scored 100 or more points and only five times*in losses to UCLA (86-68), N.C. State (87-70 and 79-71), Duke (93-71), and Clemson (87-72)*has UNC failed to score 75 points.
Brown from downtown
After shooting .221 from long range last season, sophomore guard Juana Brown leads the Tar Heels with a three-point percentage of .408. She has more than tripled last season's makes, with a current total of 58 compared with 17 in 1997-98. Nine times this season she has hit three or more threes in a game.
Wright passes Marion Jones
Senior Chanel Wright recently did something that elite athletes the world over only dream of accomplishing: she passed Marion Jones.
Jones, the world's fastest female sprinter, scored 1,716 points for the Tar Heels between 1993 and 1997. With 15 points against Duke on Feb. 21, Wright took over eighth place from Jones and now has 1,810 career points.
Wright moved into UNC's top 10 on Dec. 31, which was also her 21st birthday. She scored 13 points against Hampton to bring her total to 1,556 and move onto the list. Wright is eight points from seventh place, currently held by Dawn Royster, and ranks 23rd on the ACC's career list.
This season, Wright is averaging 13.9 points per game and was a preseason pick for All-ACC honors and a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year award.
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. Chanel Wright (1996-99) 1,770 9. Marion Jones (1994-97) 1,716 10. Bernie McGlade (1977-80) 1,604
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, she has scored in double figures in 12 of the last 13 games and averages 14.0 points. *There's no question she has tremendous potential and ability,* coach Sylvia Hatchell says. *The sky's the limit.*
Barksdale set new career highs in scoring in consecutive games with 22 points against Hampton on Dec. 31 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. Her 25 points led the team in scoring at Duke on Feb. 21.
She has totaled ten double-doubles this season and 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.
Feats of Clay
Senior Yanick Clay has started 32 games this season, more than any other player on the team . She has scored more points (192) than in her first three years at UNC combined (149).
She averages 5.8 points per game and scored a season-high 15 points on 7-for-8 shooting against Georgia Tech in the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals. She played perhaps her best all-around game of the season at Clemson on Feb. 3, scoring 12 points and grabbing a team-leading nine rebounds while committing just two fouls. She also led the team in rebounds against Maryland with eight.
Clay, who is from Inglewood, Calif., already has WNBA experience. She has spent the past two summers as an intern with the L.A. Sparks. etter on the boards
Over the past five games, four of which have been against ranked team, Carolina has outrebounded its opponents 210 to 177, an average of 42 to 35.4. The Tar Heels started out the run with 52 rebounds (equal to a season high) against Virginia on Feb. 14. UNC lost the ACC Championship 87-72 to Clemson but won the rebounding battle, 37-32.
Several players have led the improvement, with averages well above their season marks. Sophomore guard Juana Brown is averaging 7.6 rebounds over the last five games, compared with 5.4 for the season. And Jessica Gaspar, perhaps an unlikely source of rebounds as the shortest player on the team, is grabbing 5.6 over the last five games, compared with 3.3 for the season.
Welcome back to the team
Tracy Reid, Carolina's 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.
Taking what's free
The Tar Heels bettered their season free throw percentage of .670 in all three ACC Tournament games. Against Georgia Tech, they hit 22 of 32 shots (.688). Against Virginia, it was 32 of 43 (.744), team season highs in both makes and attempts. Against Clemson in the finals, Carolina was 17-for-18 for a season-high .944 percent.
Leading the improvement trend is Juana Brown, who is shooting .610 for the season but made 10 of her 11 free throw attempts during the ACC Tournament and was 5-for-5 in the championship game.
Higgins on target
Sophomore forward Jackie Higgins, a junior college All-America last season, is shooting a team-best 50.7 percent from the field and providing 8.2 points per game off the bench. Her 5.1 rebounding average ranks fourth on the team.
At 6-feet, she's 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 team's 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.
She scored a career-high 16 points (7-for-12) at Maryland on Feb. 11.
Davis returns from diagnostic surgery
Senior center Natasha Davis returned to action against N.C. State on Feb. 7 after missing five games following diagnostic arthroscopic knee surgery on Jan. 21. She had experienced pain and weakness in her right knee since a fall during a game in mid-December, but the surgery showed only bruising of the bone and nothing that needed to be surgically repaired.
Davis played six minutes against the Wolfpack, grabbing two rebounds and scoring a point. She played 20 minutes against Virginia on Feb. 14 , and her defense earned Hatchell's praise.
For the season she is averaging 2.1 points and 1.1 rebounds and has earned coach Sylvia Hatchell's praise for her post defense.
Gaspar under pressure
Senior guard Jessica Gaspar is shooting .812 from the line this season, best on the UNC team.
Gaspar is 104-128 overall from the line and was 54-for-65 (.831) in the team's ACC games. Against Virginia on Feb. 14, she went to the line 16 times and hit 13 shots, good for all her points on the day.
With a current career average of .739, she'll finish among UNC's top 10 in free throw percentage. The Tar Heels' record holder for career average is Eileen McCann, .785 from 1981-84.
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 women's 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.
Carolina averaged 2,465 fans at home at Carmichael Auditorium during the regular season and compiled a record of 14-2.
New career highs
Four of UNC's regular starters have logged career-high performances this season.
Tar Heels, Teasley in OT
Carolina is 2-0 in overtime games for the season, thanks in large part to Nikki Teasley. In the first overtime win of the season, Dec. 5 at Florida State, she scored a career-high 32 points, including 10 points in overtime.
On Feb. 14 against Virginia, Teasley hit a free throw to tie the game with 57 seconds remaining then scored seven of the team's 12 points in overtime.
She was named ACC Player of the Week following each of those performances.
Watching the polls
Following the Feb. 7 homecourt loss to unranked N.C. State, North Carolina dropped out of the top 10 in both polls for the first time all season. The Tar Heels had been in the top 10 of at least one of the polls since the week of Jan. 20, 1998.
UNC is one of 15 teams to have been ranked in the AP poll every week this season.
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 10
2/8 14 14
2/15 12 13
2/22 13 14
3/1 11 12
3/8 14 13
Busy scheduleThe Tar Heels played 16 games in November and December, more than any other Division I women's 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-offClassic and three in the Rainbow Wahine Classic*plus two December conference games.
UNC in the NCAA Standings (March 2)Team scoring offense 7th (83.5)
UNC in the ACC Standings (March 8)
Team scoring offense 1st (83.5) Steals 1st (11.3) Turnover margin 1st (6.2) Three-pointers per game 3rd (5.0) Scoring margin 3rd (12.5) locked shots 4th (2.7) Three-point percentage 5th (.315) Field goal percentage 5th (.433) Scoring defense 5th (71.1) Free throw percentage 5th (.670) Rebound margin 5th (2.1) FG percentage defense 6th (.426)Individual ACC rankings (March 8)
Weekly Honorees
Nikki Teasley was named ACC Player of the Week twice this season, each time after leading UNC to an overtime victory.
Teasley first earned Player of the Week honors on Dec. 7. Against Florida State on Dec. 5, she nailed a three-pointer that tied the game at 94-94 with 13 seconds to play, then scored 10 points in overtime as UNC pulled away to win 112-101. She scored a career-high 32 points in that game.
She received her second honor on Feb. 15, a day after she led UNC with 24 points in an 82-80 win over Virginia. Seven of her points game in the overtime period. On Feb. 11, playing at Maryland in front of many friends and family members, she led the Tar Heels with 19 points.
Juana Brown opened the season by claiming the conference's first Player of the Week honors. She scored 17 points against Akron on Nov. 13 and 27 (then a career high) against Kansas in the State Farm Tip-off Classic on Nov. 15.
Hatchell's 250th UNC win
North Carolina's win over Florida State on Dec. 5 marked Sylvia Hatchell's 250th victory at the Tar Heel helm.
Additionally, the win over Georgia Tech on Dec. 3 was Hatchell's 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, Hatchell's 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 539-212. She began her career as a junior varsity coach while earning a master's 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.
Injury rundown
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.
Senior Chanel Wright sat out game at Maryland on Feb. 11 after spraining her knee in practice on Feb. 8. The injury was classified as a mild sprain of the medial collateral ligament and a contusion to the left knee. Wright returned to the starting lineup for Senior Day activities against Virginia and played 16 minutes, scoring five 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. John's 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. John's 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 UNC's 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.
Early signees for the Tar Heels
