Carolina Comes Up Short in Road Rematch With No. 8 Wolfpack

Sunday, January 26

Raleigh, N.C.

6 PM

North Carolina

14-6,5-4ACC

NC State

19-1,8-1ACC

North Carolina

NC State

Janelle Bailey and the Tar Heels battled but couldn't pull off another win over the Wolfpack.

Photo by: Dana Gentry

January 26, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

RALEIGH, N.C. – Tar Heel seniors Shayla Bennett and Taylor Koenen came up just short of career scoring highs Sunday evening at Reynolds Coliseum, and North Carolina fell just shy a road win over No. 8 NC State as the Wolfpack came out on top 76-68 in the teams' second meeting of the month.

UNC fell to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with the loss. The Tar Heels are back in action with two home games this week, hosting Virginia on Thursday at 6 p.m. and Clemson Sunday at 2 p.m. at Carmichael Arena.

North Carolina won the season's first matchup with the Wolfpack, 66-60 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 9, clawing back from a 10-point halftime deficit to earn the victory. This time the Tar Heels trailed 37-30 at the half and cut the NC State lead to four early in the fourth quarter, but couldn't come all the way back for the win.

"I've got a bunch of fighters and we're going to fight to the end," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "It's what we do. It's what we've done all year.

"It's a 40-minute game and what you're going to see with the guys in blue is we're going to give you everything we've got for the whole 40 minutes."

Bennett, in the game for all 40, scored a team-high 24 points, 19 of them in the second half. She was just two points from matching her career high of 26, scored earlier this month at Virginia Tech. She was 10-for-12 from the free throw line and also led the team with eight assists.

Koenen scored 16 points in the first half and finished with 21, two shy of the 23 she scored against Illinois last month. She hit a team-high three three-pointers.

UNC made just one of its first eight shots and trailed by 11 with four minutes to play in the first quarter, but used a 9-1 run to close the gap to three with a minute to play in the period.

The Wolfpack pushed the lead back out to eight midway through the second quarter, but the Tar Heels again fought back and trailed by just one, 26-25, after a Madinah Muhammad three-pointer, assisted by Koenen, with 3:44 in the half. After NC State answered, Bennett found Koenen for a layup that again made it a one-point game with just over two minutes until halftime. The Wolfpack closed the period on a 9-3 run to go up seven at the break.

NC State opened the lead up to 10 early in the third period, but once again the Tar Heels battled back, closing to three points with a 7-0 run punctuated by a layup by freshman Malu Tshitenge, assisted by junior Janelle Bailey.

The Tar Heels pulled within two points, 45-43, on a three-pointer by junior Leah Church with 5:41 to play. But the Wolfpack answered with a three by Jakia Brown-Turner and quickly ran the lead to 13, the biggest NC State advantage of the game, at 58-45 with 1:40 remaining in the third.

UNC pulled within four, 62-58, with 8:25 to play on back-to-back threes from Koenen and Bennett, but the Tar Heels could get no closer.

Bailey fouled out with just over three minutes to play and Tshitenge fouled out 46 seconds later, leaving the Tar Heels short-handed and also somewhat short, with 6-2 Koenen the only Tar Heel over 5-10 in the lineup. A layup by Bennett with 35 seconds to play got the final margin back into single digits.