University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Georgia Tech
Comeback Comes Up Just Short At Georgia Tech
January 15, 2016 | Women's Basketball
North Carolina (12-7, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) took its first lead of the game, 57-56, on two Jamie Cherry free throws with 2.5 seconds left in third quarter. The Tar Heels scored the first four points of the final quarter and Carolina found itself up 61-56 after trailing the first 29 minutes, 27 seconds to the Yellow Jackets.
Destinee Walker's jumper had UNC up 69-65 with 3:44 left, but an 11-2 run by the Yellow Jackets was too much for the visiting Tar Heels to overcome, who played more than half the game without injured starter Xylina McDaniel, and reserve Erika Johnson fouled out with over five minutes left in regulation.
Cherry led Carolina with 15 points, while N'Dea Bryant added 14 points off the bench. Walker had 12 and Hillary Summers came up with 11 points.
ACC-leading scorer Aaliyah Whiteside's seven early points had Georgia Tech up 12-2, but McDaniel and the Heels answered back with an 8-0 run to get right back into the game. The senior forward had five points in the run, including a rare three-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 12-10.
The Jackets answered with seven of the next 10 points, and led 24-15 at the end of the first quarter.
The Tar Heels scrapped the inside game in the early stages of the second. Cherry opened the stanza with a three-pointer, and later Stephanie Watts hit back-to-back triples to get Carolina within 26-24 of the Yellow Jackets.
Similar to the first quarter, the home team answered the Tar Heels run to regain a 34-26 lead, but Carolina scored the last four points of the quarter and trailed only 38-35 at intermission.
Whiteside led all scorers with 27 points for Georgia Tech (11-7, 1-4). Zaire O'Neil had 14 points and both Roddreka Rogers and Irene Gari had 11 points each.
Carolina returns home for its final game at Carmichael Arena in the month of January on Sunday against No. 21 Miami at 12:30 p.m. on the Regional Sports Network and WatchESPN app.
