No. 4 Tar Heels Travel To No. 25 NC State Sunday

Jan. 14, 2006

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Tipoff
The No. 4 North Carolina women's basketball team (15-0, 2-0 ACC) travels to Raleigh Sunday to take on No. 25 NC State at Reynolds Coliseum. The game is the second road contest in a row for the Tar Heels, who won 90-57 at Miami on Monday.
The Tar Heels are ranked fourth in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. NC State is ranked 25th in the A.P. poll and receiving votes in the coaches' poll. The Wolfpack will be UNC's fourth ranked opponent of the season.
Tipoff is 5 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally by Fox Sports Net. UNC's Sylvia Hatchell, in her 31st year as a head coach, heads into the game with a total of 699 career wins.

On the air
Sunday's game will be televised live nationally by Fox Sports Net. Debbie Antonelli will call the play-by-play and Beth Mowins will provide color commentary.
The game also will air on the Tar Heel Radio Network, which includes eight stations across the state of North Carolina. WCHL-AM 1360 in Chapel Hill is the flagship. Taylor Zarzour is the Tar Heels' play-by-play announcer and Jan Boxill provides color commentary.
Radio broadcasts and live game statistics are available on the internet at www.TarHeelBlue.com.

Next up
After ACC road games at Miami and NC State, the Tar Heels return to Chapel Hill for two in a row. UNC hosts Georgia Tech on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game and Florida State next Sunday (Jan. 22) for a 2 p.m. tipoff.

UNC at a glance
2005-06 record 15-0 (2-0 ACC)
2004-05 record 30-4 (12-2 ACC)
Current rankings 4th A.P., 4th ESPN/USA Today
Head coach Sylvia Hatchell
Career record 699-266 (31st season)
Record at UNC 427-186 (20th season)
Assistant head coach Andrew Calder
Assistant coaches Tracey Williams-Johnson, 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. 8,010)
Carmichael Auditorium press row number (919) 843-9509

Briefly ...

The Tar Heels have opened the season 15-0 for the first time since 1994-95, when UNC won its first 18 games, the best start in school history. Carolina is one of four NCAA Division I teams that remain undefeated, along with Tennessee, Duke and LSU.

NC State leads the series with UNC 48-30, but the Tar Heels have won eight of the teams' last nine meetings.

Sunday's game will be UNC's fourth of the season against a team ranked in the Associated Press top 25. So far, UNC is 3-0 against teams ranked in the A.P. poll, with wins over No. 16 Arizona State, No. 8 Connecticut and No. 19 Vanderbilt. The Tar Heels were 6-2 last season against teams ranked in the A.P. poll.

UNC's next win will be coach Sylvia Hatchell's 700th career victory. She will become the seventh NCAA women's basketball coach and the fifth Division I coach to reach that milestone. Hatchell is in her 31st season as a head coach and her 20th at UNC.

Junior Camille Little is nine points away from reaching the 1,000-career-points milestone. She would be the 26th player in school history and third on this year's team (joining Ivory Latta and La'Tangela Atkinson) to achieve that feat.

Junior Ivory Latta has hit at least one three-pointer in 43 consecutive games and currently ranks 13th in ACC history with 195 career threes. She needs five to take over 12th place.

Senior La'Tangela Atkinson is now one of the top 10 rebounders in UNC history. With a career total of 869, she ranks 10th on the school's total rebounds list. She needs two to take over ninth place from Kathy Crawford (870, 1980-83).

Although just a sophomore, LaToya Pringle is already tied for 10th in UNC history in career blocks with a total of 69.

The Tar Heels finished their nonconference slate without a loss for the first time since the 1994-95 season, when Carolina won its first 18 games, including 12 nonconference contests.

Carolina has won 22 consecutive games at Carmichael Auditorium and 27 in a row in Chapel Hill (including five at the Dean E. Smith Center). The total is a school record and ranks as the third-longest current home winning streak in the nation.

Team captains for the 2005-06 season are senior La'Tangela Atkinson, junior Ivory Latta and sophomore Erlana Larkins.

Noting the numbers

Six different players - La'Tangela Atkinson, Heather Claytor, Erlana Larkins, Ivory Latta, Camille Little, and LaToya Pringle - have led the team in scoring or tied for the team lead in scoring at least once this season.

Seven of UNC's 14 players are shooting 50 percent or better from the field. Nine are shooting better than 42 percent.

Ivory Latta's current field goal percentage of .524 is up more than 10 percent from last year, when she shot .420. Her shooting percentage has continued to climb since she shot .362 from the field as a freshman.

As a team, Carolina is shooting .402 from three-point range, up from .317 last season. The school record is .363, set in 1992.

UNC has shot better than .500 from the field in six of its last seven games: (.564 vs. Wofford, .585 vs. Coastal Carolina, .548 vs Vanderbilt, .455 vs. ODU, .557 vs. College of Charleston, .543 vs. Clemson, .508 vs. Miami). The Tar Heels are shooting .496 for the season.

Only three teams - Arizona State (.560), Vanderbilt (.489) and Clemson (.411) - have shot better than .400 against UNC this season.

Erlana Larkins's field goal percentage of .663 would rank sixth in the nation if she had the minimum five field goals per game to appear in the rankings. (She has 4.5 per game.)

Heather Claytor ranks third in the nation with a three-point percentage of .508 and Ivory Latta is seventh at .494. As a team, the Tar Heels rank second in the NCAA in scoring, scoring margin, three-pointers per game, assists and steals.

UNC's statistical leaders
Scoring: Ivory Latta, 17.7 points per game Rebounding: Erlana Larkins, 6.5 per game
Assists: Ivory Latta, 6.1 per game
Steals: Erlana Larkins, 2.5 per game
Blocks: LaToya Pringle, 1.6 per game
Minutes: Ivory Latta, 27.5 per game
Field goal percentage: Erlana Larkins, .663 (67-101)
Three-point percentage: Heather Claytor, .508 (32-63)
Free throw percentage: Alex Miller, 895 (17-19); Ivory Latta, .860 (49-57),

Scouting the NC State Wolfpack
NC State was 10-4 overall and 1-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play heading into Friday night's game at Virginia. The Wolfpack is led in scoring by senior forward/center Tiffany Stansbury, who is averaging 14.9 points per game and adding 7.8 rebounds per game. Also in double figures are junior guard Ashley Key (11.1 ppg), sophomore forward Khadijah Whittington (10.9 ppg) and senior guard Billie McDowell (10.4 ppg). Whittington is the team's top rebounder with 8.1 boards per game. NC State is coached by Kay Yow, who is in her 31st season with the program and her 35th as a head coach.

The Tar Heels and Wolfpack have faced two common opponents this season. Both teams have beaten Liberty at home, UNC 87-36 on Nov. 21 and NC State 83-69 on Dec. 4. NC State beat Vanderbilt 76-67 at home on Nov. 30. The Tar Heels beat the Commodores 87-67 on Dec. 20 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

The series against NC State
Sunday's game will be the 79th meeting in a series that dates back to the 1974-75 season, UNC's first as a varsity program. NC State leads the series 48-30, but the Tar Heels have won three in a row and eight of the last nine.
North Carolina won just four times in its first 29 games at NC State before a 80-71 win in the 2001-02 season. That win snapped a seven-game losing streak for UNC at Reynolds and marked the beginning of four-game winning streak at NC State for the visiting Tar Heels.
All of the games in that span have been close ones:
Feb. 10, 2002: UNC 80, NC State 71
Nikki Teasley scored 15 of her team-high 23 in the second half as UNC won in Raleigh for the first time since 1994.
Feb. 7, 2003: UNC 66, NC State 63
UNC erased a 10-point lead by NC State in the second half to tie the game and Leah Metcalf got a steal and converted a three-point play with 57 seconds for the final margin.
Jan. 8, 2004: UNC 58, NC State 57
UNC closed with a 9-2 run and La'Tangela Atkinson hit the winning layup with 3.7 seconds on the clock.
Jan. 14, 2005: UNC 77, NC State 75
The Wolfpack led by 11 in the second half and UNC didn't take the lead for good until a layup by Erlana Larkins with 2:05 to play.

Hatchell shooting for 700
UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell, in her 31st year as a head coach, is on the brink of becoming the seventh NCAA women's basketball coach to earn 700 career wins. She heads into the game against NC State with a career record of 699-266.
Four NCAA Division I coaches, three of whom are still active, have reached that milestone. The current coaches are Tennessee's Pat Summitt, Texas' Jody Conradt and Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer. Former LSU coach Sue Gunter also won 700 games during her career.
Two other NCAA women's coaches, one in Division II and one in Division III, have reached the 700-wins mark. Phil Kahler of Division III St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y., reached 700 career wins on Jan. 10, 2004. The latest to join the elite club is Barbara Stevens, the coach at Division II Bentley College in Waltham, Mass. She earned her 700th win earlier this month, on Jan. 5, 2006.
Hatchell's 600th career win came on March 3, 2002, with a 58-52 win over NC State in the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. Her 500th win also came against the Wolfpack, 67-64 on Jan. 22, 1998, in Chapel Hill.
The first win of Hatchell's career was on Jan. 14, 1976, when she led Francis Marion to an 88-62 victory over Voorhees.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Heather Claytor

Erlana Larkins

Ivory Latta

Camille Little

Leah Metcalf

Alex Miller

LaToya Pringle

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