University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Women's Hoops To Meet Vanderbilt
March 21, 2002 | Women's Basketball
March 21, 2002
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Tipoff: UNC in the 2002 Midwest Region Semifinal
With a 72-69 win over Minnesota in a homecourt second-round game Monday, North Carolina advanced to its eighth Sweet 16 in the past 10 years. The Tar Heels (26-8) will face Vanderbilt (29-6) on Saturday in the second Midwest Region semifinal game in Ames, Iowa.
UNC, ranked 16th, is the No. 4 seed in the region. Fourth-ranked Vanderbilt is the top seed. In the other Midwest Region semifinal, second-seeded Tennessee (27-4) will face 11th-seeded BYU (24-8).
2002 NCAA Midwest Regional
Semifinal games: Saturday, March 23
No. 2 seed Tennessee vs. No. 11 seed BYU, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
No. 1 seed Vanderbilt vs. No. 4 seed North Carolina, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Region final: Monday, March 25
Semifinal winners, 9:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
All games at Hilton Coliseum (cap. 14,044)
On the air
Saturday's game will air live on ESPN2 as part of the station's coverage of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Tipoff is 9:30 p.m. ET.
Dave Barnett will handle play-by-play and Nancy Lieberman will provide color commentary. Holly Rowe will report from the sidelines.
Saturday's game also will be broadcast locally on radio. It will air on the Tar Heel Sports Network, of which the flagship station is 1360AM-WCHL. Stephen Gates is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer and Jan Boxill will provide color commentary.
Quick facts on UNC
2001-02 Record 26-8 (11-5 ACC)
Current Rankings 16th A.P., 16th USA Today/ESPN
Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell (Carson-Newman, 1974)
Career Record 602-248 (in her 27th season)
Record at UNC 330-168 (in her 16th season)
Assistant Head Coach Andrew Calder
Assistant Coaches Tracey Williams, Sylvia Crawley
Team captains Coretta Brown, Courtney Chambers, Jennifer Thomas
Sports information contact Dana Gelin
Phone/email (919) 962-0083/dgelin@uncaa.unc.edu
UNC athletics website www.TarHeelBlue.com
UNC ticket office (919) 962-2126, (800) 722-4335
News of note
-- UNC's Sylvia Hatchell earned her 600th victory as a head coach on March 3 with a win over NC State. She is one of six active Division I women's basketball coaches to have reached that mark.
-- Carolina is 12-2 in its last 14 games, with the losses coming to Duke, ranked in the top five nationally for both meetings.
-- With five three-pointers Saturday against Harvard, junior guard Coretta Brown set an Atlantic Coast Conference single-season record for threes. She now has a total of 97 this season, passing the old ACC mark of 90 by NC State's Jennifer Howard in 1996.
-- Senior guard Nikki Teasley is 64-72 (88.9 percent) from the free throw line over the last 10 games and is shooting 86.8 from the line for the season, the best single-season mark in UNC history. She now ranks second in UNC history with a career free throw percentage of 78.0.
-- Coretta Brown's current career three-point percentage, 37.5 (161-429), is the best in school history.
-- UNC has hit a school- and conference-record 231 three-pointers this season. The old North Carolina mark was 188, set in 2000. The old ACC mark was 213, by Duke in 1999.
-- Nikki Teasley passed the 700-assists mark in Saturday's game and now has a career total of 719, 10 short of tying the ACC record. Her career average of 5.79 per game is the highest in conference history.
-- After Monday's win over No. 18 Minnesota, UNC is 2-5 this season against ranked teams. Three of those losses came to top-five Duke, one to No. 1 Connecticut and one to No. 13 South Carolina.
-- Senior guard Nikki Teasley will celebrate her 23rd birthday on Friday. She was born March 22, 1979, in Washington, D.C.
NCAA Tournament tidbits
-- The Tar Heels are in the Sweet 16 for the eighth time in the last 10 years and the 10th time in school history.
-- UNC leads the Atlantic Coast Conference schools in regional semifinal appearances over the last decade. After the Tar Heels' eight, Virginia has been to six, Duke to five (including this year), NC State to three and Clemson to one.
-- Carolina is now 6-4 in NCAA play as the No. 4 seed.
-- North Carolina won the 1994 NCAA Championship and reached the Elite Eight in 1998.
- Carolina's only other NCAA Tournament meeting with Vanderbilt came in the 1994 East Region semifinal. UNC won and went on to the '94 national championship.
-- UNC has made it at least as far as the regional semifinal game in each of its last eight NCAA Tournament appearances.
-- Carolina has advanced past the regional semifinal game twice, in 1994 and 1998.
-- The Tar Heels are now 4-1 playing in the Midwest Region. UNC's only other appearance in that region was in 1999, when Carolina reached the region semifinal as the No. 4 seed.
-- North Carolina is 16-1 at home in NCAA Tournament play. Including this year, the Tar Heels have hosted games on 11 occasions.
UNC's statistical leaders
Scoring: Coretta Brown (17.0 points per game)
Rebounding: Chrystal Baptist (7.7 per game)
Assists: Nikki Teasley (5.6 per game)
Steals: Nikki Teasley (2.1 per game)
Blocks: Candace Sutton (2.0 per game)
Field goal percentage: Jennifer Thomas (56.9, 74-130)
Three-point percentage: Coretta Brown (40.1, 97-242)
Free throw percentage: Nikki Teasley (86.8, 131-151)
Minutes per game: Coretta Brown (34.2 per game)
UNC players in the ACC rankings
(Through NCAA second-round games)
Scoring: 3. Coretta Brown (17.0), 5. Nikki Teasley (15.6), 18. Candace Sutton (12.0)
Rebounding: 5. Chrystal Baptist (7.7), 9. Candace Sutton (6.2), 16. Coretta Brown (5.1)
Field goal percentage: 4. Candace Sutton (47.4), 9. Coretta Brown (43.7)
Free throw percentage: 1. Nikki Teasley (86.8)
Three-point percentage: 1. Coretta Brown (40.1), 2. Nikki Teasley (37.9)
Assists: 1. Nikki Teasley (5.62), 6. Leah Metcalf (3.85), 9. Coretta Brown (3.47)
Steals: 4. Nikki Teasley (2.12), 7. Leah Metcalf (1.94)
Blocks: T1. Candace Sutton (2.00)
Three-pointers made: 1. Coretta Brown (2.85), 2. Nikki Teasley (2.41), 9. Leah Metcalf (1.31 per game)
Assist/turnover ratio: 2. Nikki Teasley (1.80), 5. Coretta Brown (1.44), 10. Leah Metcalf (1.24)
UNC in the NCAA rankings
Through games of March 11
Team
Fifth in scoring offense (80.6 points per game), 21st in three-pointers per game (6.7), 20th in scoring margin (12.6)
Individuals
Candace Sutton: 35th in blocks per game (2.0)
Nikki Teasley: 21st in free throw percentage (87.1)
Coretta Brown: T16th in three-pointers per game (2.8), 40th in three-point percentage (39.1)
Scouting the Vanderbilt Commodores
No. 4 Vanderbilt is 29-6 on the season and has won seven straight heading into the regional semifinals. The team claimed the 2002 Southeastern Conference Championship with a 63-48 win over LSU on March 3, then defeated Oakland (63-38) in the first round of NCAA play and Arizona State (61-35) in the second.
The Commodores are led in scoring by junior center Chantelle Anderson?s 20.2 points per game. Also in double figures is senior forward Zuzi Klimesova, who averages 15.5 points and leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game. As a team, Vanderbilt averages 72.9 points per game and shoots 52.2 percent from the field.
The Commodores are coached by Jim Foster, who is in his 11th season with the program.
The North Carolina-Vanderbilt series
UNC and Vanderbilt have met just twice, both times on a neutral court. The first matchup was on Jan. 9, 1981, at the Lady Rebel-Dial Classic in Oxford, Miss. There, Vanderbilt won 81-80.
The second meeting came in the 1994 NCAA Tournament as UNC marched to the national title. In the East Region semifinal in Piscataway, N.J., on March 24, 1994, Carolina defeated Vanderbilt 73-69.
-- The Tar Heels and Commodores have faced several common opponents this season. Both teams lost to Connecicut, UNC 97-74 in the Preseason WNIT semifinal on Nov. 15 and Vanderbilt 69-50 three days later in the Preseason WNIT Championship.
UNC also played a pair of non-conference games against SEC teams, which Vanderbilt faced in conference play. The Tar Heels defeated Kentucky 102-64 and lost 85-53 to South Carolina. VU lost 71-52 at South Carolina and beat Kentucky 71-54 and 73-57.
UNC vs. the rest of the Midwest
North Carolina is 1-12 all-time against Tennessee, with the only win coming during the 1985-86 season. On Jan. 11, 1986, UNC defeated the Lady Vols 82-68 at Carmichael Auditorium. UT has won four matchups in a row since then.
The teams' most recent meeting was in the 1997 NCAA Mideast Region final, which Tennessee won 76-70. The game was played at Vanderbilt's home court, Memorial Gymnasium, in Nashville, Tenn.
UNC and BYU have never met in women's basketball competition.
Teasley touted
Senior guard Nikki Teasley is one of three finalists for ESPN The Magazine's Point Guard of the Year Award, along with Connecticut's Sue Bird and Oklahoma's Stacey Dales.
Teasley also is one of 48 district finalists for Kodak All-America honors. She is joined on the District 2 list by Duke's Alana Beard and Iciss Tillis, Old Dominion's Lucienne Bertheau, Clemson's Chrissy Floyd and Siena's Gunto Basko.
The senior was named honorable mention All-America by The Associated Press.
Stepping up in the postseason
UNC's top three scorers have performed even better in the postseason--including three Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament games and two NCAA Tournament games--than in the 29 games of the regular season.
-- Sophomore center Candace Sutton has averaged 16.2 points and 8.0 rebounds over the last five games, compared with 11.2 points and 5.9 rebounds during the regular season.
-- Junior guard Coretta Brown has averaged 18.4 points over the last five games, including a career-high 28 against Harvard in UNC's first-round win, compared with 16.8 in the regular season. In the last five games, she has committed a total of just four turnovers (three of the games were turnover-free for her) while playing an average of 35.4 minutes per game
-- Point guard Nikki Teasley, the team's only senior, has averaged 16.6 points and 8.0 assists over the last five games, compared with 15.4 points and 5.2 assists in the regular season. In UNC's two NCAA Tournament games, she has averaged 10 assists per game.
Brown, Sutton and Teasley all earned first-team All-ACC Tournament honors, Teasley for the fourth time in her career.
Records fall as threes do
Led by the top two long-range shooters in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Tar Heels have hit 231 three-pointers this season to set school and conference records.
The old UNC mark was 188 by the 1999-2000 team. The old ACC mark was 213 by Duke in 1998-99.
Junior Coretta Brown has hit more threes this season than anyone in UNC and ACC history. Heading into the year, Stephanie Lawrence held the UNC record with 69 in 1995 and NC State's Jennifer Howard held the ACC record with 90 in 1996. Brown currently has 97, averaging an ACC-best 2.85 per game. She shoots 40.1 from long range, also a conference high.
Senior guard Nikki Teasley ranks just behind Brown in both three-point categories (2.4 per game, 37.9 percent shooting) and has passed UNC's old single-season mark herself. Her season total currently stands at 77.
With a total of 236 in her career, Teasley has passed Lawrence's total of 227 from 1992-95 to claim UNC?s all-time record.
ACColades
Tar Heel guards Coretta Brown and Nikki Teasley were named to the 2001-02 All-Atlantic Coast Conference first team, marking the first time since 1997 that two Carolina players have been named to the five-member team. That year Marion Jones and Tracy Reid earned first-team honors.
Guard Leah Metcalf, who joins Brown and Teasley in the starting lineup, earned a spot on the 2002 ACC All-Freshmen team. Metcalf also was named honorable mention All-ACC, as was sophomore Candace Sutton.
Tournament honors
Three Carolina players--Coretta Brown, Candace Sutton and Nikki Teasley--earned first-team All-ACC Tournament honors as the Tar Heels reached the 2002 championship game. Their selection marked the first time since 1999 that players from the second-place squad have made up the majority of the five-member first team. (In 1999, UNC had three players named to the team after finishing as the runner-up.)
Teasley's all-tournament nod was the fourth of her career, making her just the second player in conference history to earn first-team All-ACC Tournament honors in all four years of her career. The first was Trudi Lacey, who played for NC State from 1978-81.
She makes a great point
After playing mostly on the wing early in the season, senior Nikki Teasley moved to the starting point guard spot for the Jan. 27 game against Virginia, and UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell couldn't be happier with the switch. While Teasley's overall scoring has decreased slightly, she has handled the ball well and led the team to 12 wins in the past 14 games.
"Nikki does a great job of facilitating their offense and finding the open player," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said after UNC defeated the Cavaliers on Feb. 21. "She playing a more settled game than she ever has at Carolina. She?s a very smart player and very tough to match up with."
Teasley is averaging 7.2 assists and 2.7 turnovers per game since the move, compared with 4.4 assists and 3.2 turnovers before it. She's scoring 15.2 points per game since the switch, down just slightly from an average of 15.8 starting on the wing. Her 25 points against Maryland in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal marked her highest scoring total in the last 14 games and highest of the season against an ACC team.
-- With Teasley handling the ball more, backcourt-mate Coretta Brown has flourished. She averaged 20.5 points over the second half of the conference season and also led the team in scoring with 15 points (5-12 from the field) against Villanova on Feb. 6. She averaged 15.4 points in the first 20 games of the season.
Her shooting percentages, though, have made the most dramatic improvement. In the first eight games of the conference season,Brown shot 38.1 from the field, 38.3 from three-point range. Those percentages jumped to 48.7 from the field and 46.3 from three in the second half of the ACC regular season.
Mainstay in the lineup
Junior guard Coretta Brown is the only player to have started all 34 games for the Tar Heels this season. Including all 29 games last season, she has now made 63 consecutive starts.
After starting 10 games as a freshman and appearing in all 33, Brown moved into the starting lineup as UNC's point guard at the beginning of her sophomore season. This year, she shares guard duties with senior Nikki Teasley and freshman Leah Metcalf, both of whom have missed at least one start.
Brown has played in every game during her career at UNC, a total of 96 heading into the Midwest Region semifinal.
-- With 23 points against NC State on Feb. 10, Brown became the 20th UNC player to hit the 1,000-point mark. She now has 1,176 for her career, 17th in school history. With 19 points against Minnesota, Brown passed UNC assistant coach Sylvia Crawley, who scored 1,158 points for the Tar Heels from 1991-94.
-- With 97 three-pointers this year, Brown has smashed the team record for threes in a season. The old record was 69, by Stephanie Lawrence in 1995.
Thomas in for the tip
Junior guard Jennifer Thomas spent the first half of the season coming off the bench, but has been a part of the starting lineup since the Jan. 27 game against Virginia. Senior Nikki Teasley moved to the starting point guard spot at the same time, and the Tar Heels have won 12 of 14 games since.
Thomas is averaging 5.6 points per game, but has shown the ability to put up big numbers. She hit seven of her eight shots from the field for a season-high 18 points against Harvard in the first-round NCAA Tournament game for her sixth double-figure outing of the season. Five of those have come in the last 13 games.
Thomas leads the team with a field goal percentage of 56.9 and has shot 50.3 percent over her career. One of three team captains, she sports career averages of 5.5 points and 3.2 rebounds.
Hatchell records 600th win
On March 3, Sylvia Hatchell became the sixth active Division I women,s basketball coach to record a 600th career win. The team,s 58-52 victory over NC State in the ACC Tournament semifinal game gave her a 600-247 record in her 27th year as a head coach. (She is currently 602-248 overall.)
Hatchell coached at Francis Marion College from 1976-85, compiling a 272-80 record and winning a pair of national championships. At UNC since the 1986-87 season, Hatchell now has a record of 330-168 in her 16th season as coach of the Tar Heels. She has led the team to four Atlantic Coast Conference championships and to the 1994 NCAA Championship.
Hatchell is the only women's basketball coach to have led teams to national championships in the NCAA, NAIA and AIAW.
Final Four action
No matter how UNC,s season ends, senior guard Nikki Teasley is going to the Final Four. She has been invited join the country's top seniors in competing in the ESPN Slam Dunk and Three-Point Shooting Championship at the men's Final Four in Atlanta and in the WBCA All-Star Challenge at the women's Final Four in San Antonio.
If the Tar Heels don't reach the Final Four as a team, Teasley will compete in the three-point competition in Atlanta on Thursday, March 28, then fly to San Antonio to play in the WBCA game on Saturday, March 30.
Teasley is one of 17 Division I players named to the WBCA roster. That squad, which will also include the Division II and III and NAIA Players of the Year, will play a game against the USA Basketball National Team.
Tar Heels share the load
Five different Tar Heels have paced the team or shared the scoring lead in at least one game this season. Coretta Brown has led the way or tied for the lead 17 times, followed by Nikki Teasley (12 times), Leah Metcalf (five times), Candace Sutton (three times) and Chrystal Baptist (once). In only one occasion--Metcalf's 22 points in a reserve role against Richmond--did the scoring leader come off the bench.
The Tar Heels have spread the wealth even more when it comes to rebounding. Eight different players have led the team in boards or shared the lead in at least one game. Baptist has paced UNC in 20 games and averages a team-best 7.7 rebounds. Brown and Sutton have led or shared the rebounding lead six times, followed by Thomas (four), Kenya McBee (three), Nikki Teasley (two), and Nikita Bell and Metcalf (one each).
Climbing the scoring chart
Nikki Teasley has done something this season that few have accomplished: she has passed Marion Jones.
The world's fastest woman scored 1,716 points during her three years as a UNC basketball player, good for a place on the Tar Heels? all-time scoring list. But with 15 points against Virginia on Feb. 21, Teasley moved ahead of Jones to grab a spot in the top 10.
With a current total of 1,817 points, Teasley now ranks sixth in school history.
UNC's career scoring leaders
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. Nikki Teasley (1994-97)--1,817
7. Kathy Crawford (1980-83)--1,806
8. Chanel Wright (1996-99)--1,805
9. LaQuanda Barksdale (1998-2001)--1,787
10. Dawn Royster (1984-87)--1,778
11. Marion Jones (1994-96,?97)--1,716
Sutton totals up blocks
Although just a sophomore, Candace Sutton already ranks among UNC's career leaders in blocks. With a total of 106 in 61 games, she is fifth in program history.
The 6-6 center from Kettering, Md., has started 32 games for the Tar Heels this season and is third on the team with a scoring average of 12.0 points per game. She is second on the team in rebounding with 6.2 per game. Her average of 2.0 blocks is tied for the ACC lead and she ranks ranks fourth in field goal percentage (47.4).
Sutton was named ACC Player of the Week on Dec. 31 in recognition of her performance in Carolina's 85-58 win over Maryland on Dec. 30. She led UNC in scoring with 18 points and tied for the rebounding lead with eight.
She has scored in double figures 22 times this season, including every game of the post-season. She has two double-doubles, with 19 points and 12 rebounds against Richmond and 19 points and 10 rebounds against Maryland in the ACC Tournament.
-- With three blocks against NC State on Feb. 10, Sutton moved into fifth place on UNC's career blocks list. Her total of 98 passed the previous fifth-place Tar Heel, Henrietta Walls, who had 96 from 1980-83. Sutton now has a career total of 106.
-- Her total of 66 blocks this season ranks as the fourth-best single-season total in school history. Dawn Royster holds the top three spots with 114 in 1985, 90 in 1987 and 84 in 1984.
-- Sutton suffered a sprained right ankle with 6:27 remaining in the first half of the Jan. 13 game against NC State. She missed the rest of the half, but returned to play 14 minutes in the second half. She did not play against Clemson and saw just 15 minutes of action against Georgia Tech.
-- The sophomore center is coming off a string of outstanding performances in the ACC tournament. Over the three games, she averaged 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 50.0 from the field, good enough to earn a spot on the All-ACC Tournament first team.
Teasley Piles Up Assists
As her collegiate career winds down, senior guard Nikki Teasley is closing in on the Atlantic Coast Conference's career assists record. Heading into the region semifinal, Teasley has a total of 719, 10 short of the 729 by Virginia?s Dawn Staley from 1989-92.
Teasley moved into second place on the list with six assists against Clemson on Jan. 13. NC State's Angie Armstrong (1980-83) had held second with a career total of 608 assists.
-- In her first appearance of the season, Teasley totaled eight assists and became UNC?s career leader in that category. She headed into the game against Evansville, her first action of the year, seven assists short of breaking the 15-year-old record of 545 held by Pam Leake (1983-86).
She now has a total of 719 in 124 games. Her career average of 5.79 per game is the best in ACC history, ahead of Dawn Staley's average of 5.56 per game.
-- With an average of 5.6 assists per game this season, Nikki Teasley leads the ACC in that category. Should she finish the season at the top of that list, she'll become the first player in conference history to lead the ACC in assists in all four years of her collegiate career. No other player has led the conference in that category more than twice.
-- With nine assists against Minnesota, Teasley climbed into 30th place on the NCAA?s career list. Janet Malouf of Rutgers had held that spot with 718 career assists. Teasley needs six more to climb into a tie for 29th in West Virginia's Rosemary Kosiorek, who had 725.
The NCAA's all-time leader is Penn State's Suzie McConnell, who handed out a career total of 1,307.
Teasley from three
With three three-pointers against Duke on March 4, Nikki Teasley became UNC's career leader in that category. She went into the game with 227, tied with Stephanie Lawrence (1992-95) for the top career total in the program's history.
Teasley currently is fourth all-time in the ACC with a career total of 236. She is second on this year's team with 77 three-pointers and is shooting a career-best 37.9 percent from long range.
ACC career three-point leaders
1. Jennifer Howard (NC State)--315
2. Tara Saunooke (Clemson)--252
3. Danielle Donehew (Georgia Tech)--241
4. Nikki Teasley (UNC)--236
5. Tammy Gibson (NC State)--230
6. Stephanie Lawrence (UNC)--227
