University of North Carolina Athletics
No. 6 Tar Heels Visit No. 22 Virginia
June 21, 1999 | Women's Basketball
January 17, 1999
News of note:
North Carolina Tar Heels
Record: 18-2 overall, 5-1 ACC
Head coach: Sylvia Hatchell
Alma mater: Carson-Newman, 1974
Record at UNC: 259-127 (13th year)
Career record: 531-207 (24th year)
Assistant head coach: Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches: Ann Hancock, Shannon Spencer
Current ranking: #7 AP, #6 USA Today
Virginia Cavaliers
Record: 11-4, 5-1 ACC
Head coach: Debbie Ryan
Alma mater: Ursinus, 1975
Record at Virginia: 492-169 (22nd year)
Career record: same
Assistant coaches: Shawn Campbell, Audra Smith, Jenny Kuziemski Current ranking: #22 AP, #23 USA Today
1997-98 record: 19-10, 9-7 ACC
The Rivalry:
The teams met again in the ACC Tournament, where Carolina won 76-56 on Feb. 27, 1998.
UNC Head to Head Virginia 18-2 record 11-4 .444 fg % .445 .403 opponent fg % .383 .308 3 pt fg % .282 .251 opponent 3 pt fg % .320 4.8 3 pt fg per game 4.6 15.6 3 pt attempts per game 16.3 .670 free throw % .697 44.8 rebound average 40.0 +3.8 rebound margin +1.8 86.1 points per game 78.5 67.1 opponent points per game 63.0
Last time out for UNC: On Jan. 10, in the last game before a week-long break, the Tar Heels improved to 5-1 in the ACC with an 87-58 win over Maryland. Three Carolina players scored in double figures, led by Chanel Wright's 21 points. Juana Brown scored 17 and Nikki Teasley added 14 as UNC shot 8-for-9 (.889) from three-point range. Senior guard Laquanda Dawkins equaled a career high with seven rebounds. Sophomore forward Jackie Higgins missed the game with the flu.
High (scoring) Heels: The Tar Heels' scoring average of 86.1 points per game is the highest in the ACC and fifth highest in the country. Three times this season Carolina has scored 100 or more points and only twice, in an 86-68 loss to UCLA and in an 87-70 loss to N.C. State, has UNC failed to score at least 75 points.
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 UNC's 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 1,625, ninth overall and 91 points behind eighth-place Marion Jones. Wright, who also celebrated her 21st birthday on the day she moved into 10th place, is averaging 15.0 points for the season. 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. John's) 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) 1,625 10. Bernie McGlade (1977-80) 1,604
Teasley in the lead: As she did last year, Nikki Teasley leads the Tar Heels in assists with 5.4 per game. This year, however, she is also leading the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game. Teasley has been the team's high scorer seven 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 61. That total is already four more than she stole all of last year and puts her on pace to earn a place among UNC's top-10 season totals for steals.
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.
Watching the polls: North Carolina now sits at seventh in the AP poll and sixth in the USA Today/ESPN poll. The Tar Heels dropped one spot in the AP poll following the loss to N.C. State. The Tar Heels started the year ranked No. 7 in the preseason coaches' poll and No. 10 in the preseason AP poll. The Tar Heels moved up to fifth in both polls after beating Kansas and fell after the loss to UCLA.
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
Gaspar great at the line: If senior guard Jessica Gaspar can maintain or better her current free throw percentage of .819, it will rank as the best single-season performance in UNC history. (The current best is Tonya Sampson's .818 during the 1993-94 season.) Additionally, Gaspar's current career average of .785 is equal to the best ever at UNC, Eileen McCann's .785 from 1981-84. Gaspar is 59-72 from the line this season and 22-24 in the team's ACC games. Dating back to the Florida State game on Dec. 3, she has hit 27 of her last 28 attempts.
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 12.9 points and 8.3 rebounds. She set new career highs in scoring in recent 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. For the season, she has totaled six double-doubles, including a 16 point, 19 rebound performance against Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Her boards (9 offensive) in that game tied a Hart Recreation Center record. Her rebounding average ranks fourth in the ACC.
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.
Comfortable Carmichael: The Tar Heels have won 19 home games, the fifth-longest streak in the country. UNC's last homecourt loss was to Virginia in triple overtime on Jan. 15, 1998. North Carolina hasn't lost to a non-conference opponent at home since Holy Cross won 81-77 at Carmichael on Jan. 2, 1991, a streak of 55 games.
Busy schedule: The 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 game, 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. 11):
Team scoring offense 5th (86.1) Scoring margin 7th (19.0) Won/lost percentage 10th (.900)UNC in the ACC Standings: (Jan. 15)
Team scoring offense 1st (86.1) Steals 1st (12.8) Turnover margin 1st (6.6) Scoring margin 2nd (19.0) Three-pointers per game 3rd (4.8) Field goal percentage 4th (.444) locked shots 4th (3.3) Free throw percentage 4th (.670) Rebound margin 5th (3.8) Scoring defense 5th (67.1) Field goal percentage defense 5th (.403) Three-point percentage 5th (.308)
Individual ACC rankings:
Scoring: Nikki Teasley, 5th (15.8), Chanel Wright, 9th (15.0), Juana Brown, 12th (14.0); LaQuanda Barksdale, 15th (12.9) Rebounds: Barksdale, T4th (8.3)
Free throw percentage: Jessica Gaspar, 4th (.819) Wright, 6th (.759) Assists: Teasley, 2nd (5.4)
Steals: Teasley, 1st (3.1); Gaspar, 4th (2.2); Wright, 9th (1.7) Blocks: Barksdale, 4th (1.2)
Three-point %: Brown, 2nd (.400); Teasley, 6th (.339) Threes per game: Teasley, 3rd (2.0); Brown 7th (1.5)
