University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Women's Basketball Travels To Wake
January 3, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 3, 2001
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Tipoff
The Tar Heels (7-4, 1-1 ACC) play their first road game of the Atlantic Coast Conference season on Thursday, visiting Wake Forest. Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Next up for UNC is a trip to Clemson on Monday. The 7:30 p.m. game will be televised by the Regional Sports Networks as a part of the ACC's television package.
Quick Facts on the Tar Heels
2000-01 Record: 7-4 overall (1-1 ACC)
Head Coach: Sylvia Hatchell
Hatchell's Career Record: 568-230 (26th year)
Hatchell's Record at UNC: 296-150 (15th year)
Assistant Head Coach: Andrew Calder
Assistant Coaches: Tracey Williams, Sylvia Crawley
Team Captains: LaQuanda Barksdale, Juana Brown, Leah Sharp
National Rankings: Not ranked in either poll
Sports information contact: Dana Gelin
Phone/email: (919) 962-0083/dgelin@uncaa.unc.edu
UNC website: www.TarHeelBlue.com
On the Air
Thursday's game will be broadcast on radio by the Carolina Women's Basketball Network. The flagship station is 1360-AM WCHL. Stephen Gates is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer.
News to Note
* Carolina is 7-4 following an 82-75 ACC loss to Georgia Tech on Tuesday.
* UNC leads the series against Wake Forest 44-9
* Senior forward LaQuanda Barksdale continues to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring and sophomore guard Coretta Brown ranks second. Brown leads the league in assists and freshman center Candace Sutton is the ACC leader in blocks.
* The Tar Heel roster boasts two preseason candidates for the Naismith National Player of the Year Award in seniors LaQuanda Barksdale and Juana Brown.
Carolina's Statistical Leaders
Scoring: LaQuanda Barksdale, 19.4 points per game (1st, ACC)
Rebounding: LaQuanda Barksdale, 10.4 per game (3rd, ACC)
Assists: Coretta Brown, 6.7 per game (1st, ACC)
Steals: Leah Sharp, 1.7 per game
Blocks: Candace Sutton, 2.0 per game (1st, ACC)
Minutes: Coretta Brown, 37.7 per game
Field goal percentage: Cherie Lea, 48.3 (14-29)
Three-point percentage: Coretta Brown, 46.3 percent (19-41)
Free throw percentage: LaQuanda Barksdale, 73.7 percent (28-38)
Scouting the Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Wake Forest is 7-5 overall, 0-2 in the ACC, coming off an 81-56 loss at Duke on Tuesday night. The Demon Deacons' other ACC game was a 77-61 loss to Virginia on Dec. 9.
Senior guard Kristen Shaffer is the team's leading scorer with 10.5 points per game. Freshman forward Eafton Hill is just behind with 10.4 points per game. Senior forward Olivia Dardy comes off the bench to add 9.4 points.
Senior forward Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick is the team's top rebounder with 6.2 per game, while Hill adds 5.7 per game. Junior guard Val Klopfer leads Wake in assists with 2.5 per game.
The Demon Deacons are coached by Charlene Curtis, who is 26-69 in her fourth season with the program.
UNC vs. Wake Forest
Thursday's game is the 54th women's basketball meeting between North Carolina and Wake Forest. UNC leads the series 44-9 and has won 19 of the last 20 meetings.
Wake's most recent win in the series came last season in Winston-Salem, as the Deacons knocked off UNC 69-56. The game, on Jan. 16, 2000, was the fifth consecutive loss for UNC and marked the first time Wake had beaten Carolina since 1991.
Jackie Higgins led Carolina in that game with 17 points and 14 rebounds and Leah Sharp tied a season-high in scoring with 15 points. Juana Brown turned in a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Alisha Mosley led Wake Forest with 24 points, while Klopfer and Johanna Bjorklund added 10 points each.
UNC's Most Recent Action
On Jan. 2, North Carolina fell to Georgia Tech at Carmichael Auditorium for the first time since 1991, 82-75. The Yellow Jackets held a one-point lead at halftime, 32-31, and shot 51.2 percent from the field in the second half to pull off the win.
Sophomore guard Coretta Brown led UNC with 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Senior guard Juana Brown added 15 points. The Tar Heels got strong performances off the bench from sophomore forward Jennifer Thomas (14 points) and junior center LaShonda Allen (a season-high 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting). Thomas led the team with eight rebounds and Allen had seven. Senior guard LaQuanda Barksdale, the ACC's leading scorer with an average of 20.4 points per game, scored a season-low nine points before fouling out with 8:49 to play.
Georgia Tech led by 17 points with 3:00 to play, but UNC went on a 17-7 run to pull within six with 27 second remaining in the game.
"Defensively, we did not get the job done," Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "We let Butler do too much.
"At times it looked like we were struggling on offense, but we scored 75 points. I think the biggest thing was our defense. Georgia Tech did a good job and made some big buckets. We've got to learn from this and move on."
Injury Report
* Senior guard Juana Brown sprained the lateral collateral ligament in her right knee during the game against Notre Dame on Dec. 3 and missed the games against Maryland and Winthrop. She twisted her knee just over five minutes into the game when she fell out of bounds while attempting to defend a lay-up by a Fighting Irish player and did not return to the game.
rown returned to the lineup for the Dec. 21 game against South Carolina.
* Senior forward LaQuanda Barksdale missed the second half of the Dec. 9 Maryland game after suffering an allergic reaction that began to affect her late in the first half. Barksdale suffered a generalized allergic reaction, including swelling in her face and neck, and was treated on-site by team medical staff. She did not return to the game. The cause of the reaction remains unknown.
* Freshman center Candace Sutton played just seven minutes in the Dec. 21 game against South Carolina before suffering a concussion that kept her out of action for the rest of the evening. She did not dress for the following game, against Elon on Dec. 28, returned to action in the following game against Georgia Tech.
Career Highs
Several Tar Heel veterans already have set new career highs this season:
* Sophomore guard Coretta Brown scored 27 points against Maryland on Dec. 9, eclipsing the then-career-high 23 points she had scored against Syracuse in the second game of the season. She equalled her career high with a team-leading 27 against South Carolina.
Brown grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds against Winthrop.
Against North Carolina A&T, she passed out 16 assists to set a school single-game record. Brown's previous high was 10, set against Richmond last season.
* Senior LaQuanda Barksdale scored a career-high 32 points against Elon on Dec. 28. She was 11-22 from the field, hitting her only three-point attempt, and 9-11 from the free throw line. Barksdale scored 23 of her points in the first half. She also added 14 rebounds before fouling out with 3:36 to play.
* Senior Juana Brown handed out eight assists against Buffalo, topping her old high of seven, set during her sophomore year.
* Senior Leah Sharp scored a career-high 21 points-including 15-for-16 shooting from the foul line-against Maryland on Dec. 9 to better her previous high of 19, set during her freshman season. Her five steals against Maryland also set a career record.
* Redshirt freshman Courtney Chambers, who appeared in six games last season, scored nine points against N.C. A&T to eclipse her former scoring high of four points. Her two assists and three steals against the Lady Aggies also were career bests.
* Sophomore Cherie Lea grabbed a career-high seven rebounds against Old Dominion. Her previous best was six.
* Sophomore Jennifer Thomas' 20 points (on 9-for-9 shooting from the field) and three steals against Buffalo bettered previous top performances of 18 points and two steals.
Slow Start for the Tar Heels
With three losses it its first six games, UNC got off to its slowest start since the 1988-89 season. That year, Carolina opened 1-3 before winning its next seven.
In 1999-2000, UNC suffered its third loss of the season in its 12th game. In the previous two years, the Tar Heels had not lost a third game until mid-January (`99, `98). In 1997, UNC finished the season 29-3, losing its third game in the NCAA regional semifinal.
Freshmen Step Up
All four true freshmen on the roster have seen action, with center Candace Sutton a regular part of the starting lineup (with the exception of the Elon game, which she missed with a concussion). Chrystal Baptist has appeared in nine games, Joy Hairston in five and Carrie Davis in three.
Baptist shined against N.C. A&T in her home debut, coming off the bench to score 10 points and grab 10 rebounds in just 11 minutes of play. Hairston and Davis also scored their first points as Tar Heels in that game: Hairston was 2-for-4 from the field and 2-for-4 from the free throw line for 6 points, and Davis was 0-for-1 from the field and 1-for-2 from the free throw line for 1 point.
Free for the Taking
Carolina struggled from the foul line at the start of the season, shooting just 56.1 percent through the first six games. The Tar Heels boosted that figure significantly, however, with their performance against Maryland. Against the Terrapins, UNC was 32-for-40 from the foul line for a season-high shooting percentage of 80.0, which improved the team's average to 62.0 for the season.
Senior guard Leah Sharp had the standout performance in the Maryland game, hitting 15 of 16 free throws for the game and 13 of 14 in the final 2:46 of play. Her 15 makes fell just one short of tying the UNC single-game record.
Sophomore guard Coretta Brown was 8 of 10 from the line and sophomore guard Cherie Lea was 5 of 6.
After shooting 71.4 percent (15-21) against Elon, UNC's season percentage currently is 61.6.
Presence in the Middle
Freshman center Candace Sutton began her UNC career as a part of the starting lineup and has made the most of that opportunity. Over her first 10 collegiate games, Sutton averaged 7.1 points and 5.5 rebounds, playing 21.1 minutes per game. (She played just seven minutes against South Carolina after suffering a concussion that also kept her out of the game against Elon.)
Against Buffalo, in her first game as a Tar Heel, Sutton scored 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting in 18 minutes of play.
Sutton has made an early difference for UNC in blocked shots. The Tar Heels averaged 1.5 per game last season and LaShonda Allen led the team with a total of nine. Through 10 games, Sutton already has 20 and the team has a total of 47, or 4.3 per game. Sutton has had at least one block in every game in which she had appeared.
