Second-Half Performance Leads To Big Win For Tar Heels

Thursday, January 16

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

13-4,4-2ACC

Miami

10-7,2-4ACC

Miami (FL)

North Carolina

Janelle Bailey had a season-high 28 points to lead UNC.

Photo by: Dana Gentry

January 16, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

CHAPEL HILL – Junior center Janelle Bailey scored a season-high 28 points to lead the North Carolina women's basketball team to a 78-58 Atlantic Coast Conference win over Miami Thursday evening at Carmichael Arena. The Tar Heels trailed by one at halftime before rolling through the second half to their largest conference margin of the season.

"That was a game we really felt we needed," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said.

UNC improved to 13-4 overall, 4-2 in conference play. Next up is another home game, this one against fifth-ranked Louisville. The Cardinals visit Carmichael Sunday for a 1 p.m. tipoff.

Bailey's scoring total, which included 10-for-11 shooting from the foul line, was just three points shy of equaling her career high. She also led UNC with 15 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season.

Senior guard Taylor Koenen, who was honored before the game for having scored her 1,000^th career point on Sunday, finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Senior guard Shayla Bennett had 10 points and a team-high seven assists.

Bailey hit the first bucket of the game, but that 2-0 advantage was UNC's only lead in the first quarter. Miami (10-7, 2-4 ACC) led by as many as eight and the Hurricanes, who shot .571 from the field, were up 22-16 at the end of the first period.

In the second quarter the Tar Heels pulled even and went ahead, up by five, 36-31, with 2:44 in the period after back-to-back three-pointers by Leah Church and Madinah Muhammad. But Miami closed the quarter with a 7-1 run to take a one-point lead into the break, 38-37.

Bailey had 13 points by halftime, more than she'd had in a full game since the Virginia contest on Jan. 2, when she scored 16.

The Tar Heels scored just two points in the first six minutes of the third quarter and the Hurricanes held a 46-39 lead before a UNC run that started with 3:30 in the period. A layup by Bailey, assisted by Koenen, kicked it off. Koenen got a steal on the next possession, and took the ball the other way for a layup. Then freshman Kennady Tucker got a steal and fed Bennett for another fast-break layup that made it a one-point game, 46-45.

After a 30-second timeout, UNC kept rolling. By the end of the third quarter, the Carolina run was at 11-2 and the Tar Heels led 50-48. They outscored Miami 28-10 in the fourth quarter, going to the free throw line 17 times and hitting 14 of those (.824). Bailey hit her first nine foul shots of the night before missing one.

The fourth-quarter output was just shy of the highest of the season, 31 points in the fourth quarter of the season-opener against Western Carolina.

For the game, UNC turned 19 Miami turnovers into 21 points. The Tar Heels won the rebounding battle 37-34 and finished with 18 assists on 25 made baskets.