UNC Hosts Coastal Carolina Sunday

December 10, 2004 | Women's Basketball

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Dec. 10, 2004

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Tip-off
North Carolina (7-1) hosts Coastal Carolina (2-2) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Carmichael Auditorium. The game is UNC's first since suffering its first loss of the season a week earlier at Penn State (77-71 on Dec. 5).
Sunday's game is a break from UNC's final exams, which began on Dec. 8 and run through Dec. 16.
Carolina is ranked No. 5 in this week's Associated Press poll and No. 7 in the coaches' poll. Coastal Carolina is not ranked.

Up next
On Dec. 19, the Tar Heels will take on Georgia State in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The game is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, following a 1 p.m. matchup between Coastal Carolina and College of Charleston.
UNC's next home game is on Dec. 28 against Lipscomb. Tipoff is 2 p.m. at Carmichael. Carolina's Dec. 30 game against Old Dominion has been moved to 4 p.m. at the Dean E. Smith Center.

On the air
The game between UNC and Coastal Carolina will air on the Tar Heel Radio Network, which includes 12 stations. WCHL-AM 1360 in Chapel Hill is the flagship. Jones Angell is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer and Adam Pohl provides color commentary.
Live stats are available on the UNC website, www.TarHeelBlue.com.

Tickets
General admission tickets to UNC women's basketball games are $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. A limited number of reserved seats are also available at $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors.
Tickets may be purchased at the Carmichael Auditorium ticket window prior to the game or through the UNC ticket office by calling (919) 962-2296 or (800) 722-HEEL.
North Carolina students, faculty and staff are admitted free with their UNC One Cards.

UNC at a glance
2004-05 record 7-1 (0-0 ACC)
2003-04 record 24-7 (12-4 ACC)
Current rankings 5th A.P., 7th ESPN/USA Today
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell
Career record 661-263 (30th season)
Record at UNC 389-183 (19th season)
Assistant head coach Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches Tracey Williams, Charlotte Smith-Taylor
Media contact Dana Gelin
Gelin's phone/email (919) 962-0083/dgelin@uncaa.unc.edu
UNC athletics website www.TarHeelBlue.com
UNC ticket office (919) 962-2296, (800) 722-4335
Home arena Carmichael Auditorium (cap. 10,180)
Press row number (919) 843-9509

News to note

UNC leads the series with Coastal Carolina 7-0. The teams' last meeting was on Feb. 24, 2003, when the Tar Heels won 80-48 in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels are coming off their first loss of the season, 77-71 at Penn State on Sunday. Their 7-0 started equalled the team's opening run in 1996-97. The last time UNC opened better than 7-0 was in 1994-95, when the Tar Heels won their first 18 games.

UNC is the top scoring team in the ACC, averaging 81.0 points per game. The Tar Heels also lead the league in field goal percentage (.779), three-point percentage (.366), steals (12.88 per game) and assist/turnover ratio (1.13).

For the first time in school history, UNC beat two ranked teams in November. The Tar Heels won games against No. 4 Connecticut (Nov. 21) and Nov. 24 Villanova (Nov. 27).

The Tar Heels' win over No. 4 Connecticut was the program's first against a top-five team since UNC beat the Huskies in the 1994 East Region final to advance to the Final Four. UConn was ranked No. 4.

The Tar Heels won both of their preseason exhibition games, 101-69 over EA Sports on Nov. 4 and 92-57 over Athletes in Action on Nov. 16. Nikita Bell's 21 points led UNC the first game, and Camille Little was the high scorer with 24 in the second.

At the conference media day in October, North Carolina was picked as the preseason favorite to win this year's ACC title. The Tar Heels received 20 of 40 votes, two more than defending champion Duke. Ivory Latta and Camille Little were named to the Preseason All-ACC team.

UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in June. She is in her 30th season as a head coach.

UNC's statistical leaders
Scoring: Ivory Latta, 15.0 ppg
Field goal percentage: LaToya Pringle, .737 (14-19)
Three-point percentage: Camille Little, .545 (6-11)
Free throw percentage: Alex Miller, 1.000 (8-8)
Rebounding: La'Tangela Atkinson, 7.4 per game
Assists: Leah Metcalf, 4.6 per game
Steals: Camille Little, 2.5 per game
Blocks: Camille Little, 1.4 per game
Minutes: Ivory Latta, 29.6 per game

The UNC-Coastal Carolina series
UNC leads the series with Coastal Carolina 7-0. The Tar Heels won the teams' last meeting, on Feb. 24, 2003, 80-48. The closest margin in the series has been 18 points, in UNC's 72-54 win during the 2000-01 season.

Scouting the Chanticleers
Coastal Carolina is 2-2 on the season after wins over Campbell (59-48) and UNC Wilmington (51-47) and losses to Anderson (77-74) and Appalachian State (67-65).
Junior guards Jasmine Tyler and Kim Turner lead the team in scoring, averaging 10.3 points each. Senior forward Courtney Brown is just behind, adding 10.0 points per game. Brown is also the team's top rebounder with 5.3 per game.
As a team, Coastal Carolina is averaging 62.2 points per game and shooting .399 from the field.
The Chanticleers are coached by Alan LeForce, who is in his eighth season with the program and his 22nd as a head coach.

The last matchup
Feb. 24, 2003: No. 8 UNC 80, Coastal Carolina 48
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - La'Tangela Atkinson and Candace Sutton each scored 13 points to lead the eighth-ranked Tar Heels past Coastal Carolina 80-48.
Coming off a 97-63 loss at Duke in the previous game, UNC went with a revamped starting lineup. "We start players based on a grading system," she said, "and all our guards graded so poorly against Duke, none of them could start this game."
Freshman Jessica Sell scored 12 points in her first career start, while Coretta Brown added 11 for the Tar Heels, who used a 21-0 first-half run to take control.
Joining Sell in the starting lineup were Candace Sutton, Jennifer Thomas, Carrie Davis and Jenni Laaksonen.
Nikki Reddick scored 12 for the Chanticleers (10-14), who shot 27 percent. Cyndie Troutman and Whitney Shearer each added 10 points.
Sell went 4-for-7 from 3-point range in 14 minutes.
Coastal Carolina led 10-9 before the Tar Heels' 21-point spurt. The Chanticleers went scoreless for more than six minutes during the run, and trailed 42-21 at halftime. Coastal Carolina shot 6-for-27 in the first half, including an 0-for-10 effort from 3-point range.
Atkinson had eight rebounds to lead the Tar Heels, who outrebounded the smaller Chanticleers 48-29. North Carolina had four starters standing 6-foot-1 or taller, while Coastal Carolina had just one starter taller than 5-8.
"They're obviously better than we are and obviously taller than we are," Coastal Carolina coach Alan LeForce said. "The margin of victory pretty accurately indicates the type of game it was. They beat us on the boards bad."
The Tar Heels shot 46 percent, but committed 25 turnovers. Their pressure defense forced Coastal Carolina into 24 turnovers and a 5-for-27 performance from 3-point range.

UNC's last time out
Dec. 5, 2004: Penn State 77, No. 2 UNC 71
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (AP) - Tanisha Wright had 21 points and seven assists to lead Penn State to a 77-71 upset of No. 2 North Carolina. Ashli Schwab tipped in a shot with 17:14 left, part of a 7-0 run that gave Penn State a 47-43 lead.
Ivory Latta hit a 3-pointer 1:51 later to give North Carolina a one-point lead, before Jen Harris hit a 20-footer from the right corner with 14:52 left to put the Lady Lions ahead to stay. It was the 11th lead change of the game.
Latta led the Tar Heels with 19 points, and Camille Little, whose tip-in with about seven minutes left tied the game at 62, had 11 rebounds.
Penn State beat a Top 25 team for the first time in three tries this season and defeated a second-ranked team for the first time since topping Texas at home on Dec. 7, 2003. Penn State lost at Texas and Duke earlier this season.
Five Penn State players reached double figures, including Harris, who tied a career high with 19 points. Jess Strom finished with 11 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Ashli Schwab added 11 points and Amanda Brown 10.
Erlana Larkins scored 15 points in a reserve role for the Tar Heels, who jumped out to a seven-point lead when La'Tangela Atkinson stole an errant pass from Harris and dropped in a layup 6:11 in. But the Lady Lions rallied, taking their first lead at 23-21 on a 3-pointer by Harris from the top of the key with 8:56 left in the half.