Tar Heels Knock Off No. 18 Syracuse, 92-68

Thursday, December 17

Chapel Hill

8:00 PM

North Carolina

Syracuse

The Tar Heels celebrated their first ACC win of the season on Thursday night at Carmichael.

Photo by: Dana Gentry

December 17, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: UNC Athletic Communications

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team led from wire-to-wire Thursday night in earning a 92-68 win over No. 18 Syracuse at Carmichael Arena. The Tar Heels earned their first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season in their ACC home opener to improve to 6-2 overall and 1-2 in league play.

Senior center Janelle Bailey led UNC with a season-high 25 points and added eight rebounds in 24 minutes of play. Freshman guard Deja Kelly scored a career-high 22 points and handed out eight assists, which was also a career best. Graduate student guard Petra Holešínská came off the bench for 21 points and freshman guard Alyssa Ustby, making her first career start, chipped in 10.

After falling in road games at Wake Forest and Miami by a combined seven-point margin to start conference play, the Tar Heels hit ACC highs in scoring, field goal percentage, three-point percentage and free throw percentage against the Orange.

The win is UNC's first over a ranked team since the Tar Heels beat No. 9 NC State at Carmichael on Jan. 9, 2020. It's also UNC's highest scoring total in an ACC game under coach Courtney Banghart, who is in her second season at the helm.

Bailey scored the first six points of the game as UNC sprinted out to a 6-0 lead and then led 14-6 at the first media timeout with 4:54 to play in the first quarter. At that point the Tar Heels had assists on all six baskets they'd made, and they went on to total 21 assists on 30 made field goals in the game.

At halftime, the Tar Heels were up 45-32 behind 13 points from Kelly and 12 from Holešínská, who made two three-pointers in the first 20 minutes after having gone 0-for-10 from long-range over the previous two games.

They continued to stretch the lead, with the final margin of 24 the biggest advantage of the game.

The Tar Heels outrebounded the taller Orange 51-43, with freshman Anya Poole tying her career high with a team-best 11 boards. Freshman Kennedy Todd-Williams came off the bench to grab nine.

UNC returns to action on Sunday, hosting Wake Forest for a 1 p.m. game. It's the second meeting of the season with the Demon Deacons: the two played on Dec. 10 in Winston-Salem to open ACC play, with Wake winning 57-54.