March 21, 2005
UNC Game Notes in PDF Format
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Tip-off
The North Carolina women's basketball team, seeded No. 1 in the Tempe region, continues play in the 2005 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship on Tuesday with a second-round game against ninth-seeded George Washington at the Dean E. Smith Center. Tipoff is 7 p.m. and the game will be televised live by ESPN2. The winner advances on to the regional semifinals in Tempe, Ariz.
The game is the first one in Tuesday's NCAA doubleheader of local teams. Thirty minutes after the conclusion of the UNC-GW game, second-seeded Duke will take on No. 7 Boston College. The winner of that game advances on to the regional semifinals in Chattanooga, Tenn.
UNC is 28-3 on the season and playing as a top seed for the first time since 1997. The Tar Heels, ranked No. 4 in the A.P. poll and No. 2 in the coaches' poll, earned a spot in the field by winning the ACC Championship.
George Washington is 23-8 and making its 12th appearance in the NCAA field. The Colonials, members of the Atlantic 10 Conference, reached the field via an at-large bid.
On the air
Tuesday's game will be televised live by ESPN2. Dave Pasch will handle the play-by-play, Debbie Antonelli will provide color commentary and Sam Ryan will report from the sidelines. The game will be UNC's 17th television appearance of the season.
The matchup with George Washington also 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.
Tickets
Tickets for Tuesday night's two-game session (UNC vs. George Washington and Duke vs. Boston College) are $20 for adults and $15 for students and are available at the Smith Center ticket office or by calling 800-722-4335.
UNC at a glance
2004-05 record 28-3 (12-2 ACC)
Current rankings 4th A.P., 2nd ESPN/USA Today
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell
Career record 682-265 (30th season)
Record at UNC 410-185 (19th season)
Assistant head coach Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches Tracey Williams, Charlotte Smith-Taylor
Home arena Carmichael Auditorium (cap. 10,180)
Alternate home arena Dean E. Smith Center (cap. 21,750)
UNC athletics website www.TarHeelBlue.com
Briefly ...
Tuesday's second-round game will be the third women's basketball meeting between George Washington and North Carolina. The series is tied at 1-1. The teams last met in the 1997 NCAA Tournament, when GW upset the top-seeded Tar Heels in the regional semifinal.
The matchup between UNC and GWU will feature two finalists for Kodak All-America honors. The Colonials' Anna Montanana is a finalist in Region 1 and the Tar Heels' Ivory Latta is a finalist in Region 2.
Junior La'Tangela Atkinson will celebrate her 21st birthday on Tuesday. Her March 22 birthday is the reason she wears jersey No. 22.
After Sunday's win, North Carolina is 17-1 in NCAA Tournament games played in Chapel Hill.
UNC is 9-3 all-time in second-round games. The Tar Heels last won a second-round game and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2002, when they beat Minnesota 72-69 in Chapel Hill. Carolina was ousted in the first round in 2004 and the second round in 2003.
Carolina is undefeated in Chapel Hill this season at 16-0. The Tar Heels haven't even lost a game in the Tar Heel State, winning three times in Greensboro (ACC Tournament), twice in Raleigh ( at NC State, vs. Connecticut at the Jimmy V Classic), and once each in Durham (at Duke) and Winston-Salem (at Wake Forest). The Carolina men also are undefeated in Chapel Hill this season, finishing their home schedule 15-0.
UNC currently has an 18-game home winning streak, dating back to last season. The streak is the sixth-longest in the nation.
Carolina's current 14-game winning streak is the team's longest since the 1996-97 season, when the Tar Heels won 15 games in a row between late December and mid-February.
Noting the numbers
Senior Leah Metcalf heads into Tuesday's game four points shy of the 1,000-career-points mark. Should she reach that milestone, she'll be the 23rd player in Carolina history to get there. Classmate Nikita Bell scored her 1,000th in the Jan. 17 game against Miami. Sophomore Ivory Latta heads into Tuesday's game with 967 career points.
UNC leads the nation in steals with 14.2 per game.
With 441 steals in 31 games this season, the Tar Heels are closing in on the school record for single-season steals. The mark is held by the 1994 NCAA Championship team, which had 454 steals in 35 games (12.97 per game).
Ivory Latta is on track to set a school record for single-season free throw percentage. She is hitting .880 (117-133) percent of her free throws, ahead of the UNC record of .863 set by Nikki Teasley in 2002.
With 85 three-pointers this season, Ivory Latta ranks third on the UNC single-season list and sixth on the ACC's list. She needs one to move into a tie for fourth in ACC history, three to tie for third. The conference record is 99 by UNC's Coretta Brown in 2002.
With 308 career steals, Nikita Bell ranks 12th in ACC history and fourth in school history. She is two steals away from taking over 12th place in conference history.
Erlana Larkins is within reach of several UNC freshman records. She currently has 464 points, an average of 15.0 per game. The school records for freshmen are 494 points (Marion Jones, 1994) and 14.9 points per game (Tonya Sampson, 1991).
Tar Heel trends
UNC has trailed at halftime in five of its last 10 games, but came back to win all 10. The largest halftime deficit this season came against Virginia in the ACC Tournament semifinals, when Carolina trailed by 11 (39-28). UNC came back to win 78-72. For the season, UNC is 8-1 when trailing at the half.
The Tar Heels have not lost this season when scoring 80 or more points (14-0), allowing 69 points or less (24-0), shooting 50 percent or better (7-0) or holding opponents to 40 percent shooting or lower (21-0).
Over the last nine games, sophomore guard Ivory Latta is shooting .550 (33-60) from three-point range and averaging 22.0 points per game. Over the season's first 22 games, she shot .349 (52-149) from long range and scored 15.3 points per game.
Senior Nikita Bell has scored in double figures in eight of the last nine games, with the exception a six-point outing in the ACC title game. Over that span, she is averaging 14.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.9 steals, compared with 10.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.9 steals for the season.
The UNC-George Washington series
Tuesday's game will be the third women's basketball meeting between UNC and George Washington. The series is tied at 1-1.
The most recent meeting came in 1997, the only other time that Carolina was a top seed in the NCAA Tournament field. That year, the fifth-seeded Colonials upset the Tar Heels 55-46 in the region semifinals in Columbia, S.C.
The only other meeting in the series was in Chapel Hill, where UNC won 69-48 on Dec. 20, 1984, two seasons before Sylvia Hatchell took over the helm of the Tar Heel program.
Scouting the Colonials
George Washington, the No. 9 seed in the Tempe region, heads into Tuesday's game with a record of 23-8 following a 60-57 comeback win over No. 8 seed Ole Miss in Sunday's first round. Jessica Simmonds led the way with 14 points in the win and Anna Montanana scored 13.
Montanana, a senior forward, leads the team in scoring with 17.1 points per game. Simmonds, a senior forward, is the only other player in double figures with 14.6 points per game and leads the way in rebounding with 7.0 boards per game. Montanana is right behind with 6.9 rebounds per game.
The Colonials are coached by Joe McKeown, who is 363-133 in his 16th season with the program.
