Carolina Hits The Road For Matchup With BC

CHESTNUT HILL, N.C. – After six straight games in the Triangle, the North Carolina women's basketball game hit the road on Saturday for a Sunday game at Boston College. Tipoff is noon at Conte Forum.

The matchup with the Eagles kicks off the season's only stretch of three consecutive road games. The Tar Heels play at BC, Wake and Notre Dame before hosting Duke on March 1 to close the regular season.

UNC vs. Boston College
The Tar Heels and Eagles are meeting for the 18th time in a series that dates back to the 2005-06 season. UNC leads the series 14-3, including wins in the past two meetings.
• In the most recent matchup, UNC won 93-78 on Feb. 21, 2019 in Chapel Hill. Two current Tar Heels set still-standing career highs in that game: Janelle Bailey scored a career-best 31 points and Taylor Koenen had a career-best 15 rebounds.
• The game before that was in the opening round of the 2018 ACC Tournament, and the Tar Heels won 69-64 in Greensboro, N.C. Bailey also had a big game that day, with a double-double on 16 points and 13 boards.
• BC won the last time the teams met in Chestnut Hill, 77-64 on Jan. 5, 2018. Both Bailey (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Koenen (4 points, 10 rebounds) were in the starting lineup for that game. Leah Church came off the bench to play seven minutes. They're the only three Tar Heels to have played on the Eagles' home court prior to Sunday.
• The Tar Heels are 6-1 all-time in Chestnut Hill.

Scouting the Eagles
Boston College is 14-10 overall and 7-6 in ACC play this season. The Eagles have won their last two, including a 56-55 homecourt win over Notre Dame on Thursday. The victory came on a buzzer-beating layup by senior Emma Guy, who leads four BC players averaging in double figures. Guy is scoring 13.8 points per game, Taylor Soule 12.8, Makayla Dickens 10.6 and Cameron Swartz 10.0. Marnelle Garraud is just behind with 9.8 points per game. Soule leads the team in rebounding with 7.7 per game.

By the Numbers
• All five UNC starters are scoring in double figures, led by junior Janelle Bailey with 15.1 points per game.
• UNC leads the ACC in scoring (73.9 ppg) and in assist/turnover ratio (1.22), with 373 assists and a league-low 305 turnovers. The Tar Heels are second in turnover margin (+2.84) and assists (14.9) and three-point percentage (.342).
• Freshman Malu Tshitenge leads the league in offensive rebounds (4.33 per game) and senior Shayla Bennett is first in assist/turnover ratio (2.11, with 135 assists and 64 turnovers) and second in assists (5.4). Bailey is third in total rebounds (9.8) and second in defensive rebounds (7.48).
• In ACC games only, Bailey is tied for second in rebounding (with BC's Taylor Soule at 9.0).

Notables
• Junior Janelle Bailey was announced on Friday as a top-10 finalist for the Lisa Leslie Award, which goes to the nation's top center. The list will be cut to five next month and the winner will be announced in April.
• All five UNC starters have led the scoring effort in at least two games this season.
• In this week's NCAA rankings, UNC is 14th in turnovers per game, 20th in assist-turnover ratio, 28th in scoring offense and 40th in scoring margin.
• UNC, the ACC's scoring leader with an average of 73.9 points per game, is coming off its lowest scoring output of the season, 56 points in the loss to Syracuse.
• UNC is 5-2 in Thursday ACC games and 1-5 on Sundays. (The opening conference game of the season, a win over Pitt, was on Monday, Dec. 30.)
• UNC has not won this year with fewer than three players scoring in double figures. The Tar Heels are 0-3 overall, 0-2 in ACC play with two in double figures, and have had no games with just one in double figures.
• UNC is 1-8 when allowing 70 or more points (with an 86-72 victory against Clemson the only win). The Tar Heels have lost just once when scoring 70+ (83-77 at Alabama).
• Three Tar Heels (Bailey, Bennett, Koenen) played the entirety of the game at Duke, and Bennett also played all 40 minutes against Virginia Tech. That makes 15 occasions this season in which a Tar Heels has played the entire game.
• UNC is 0-7 when trailing at the end of the third quarter. All seven of those losses have come in ACC play (Virginia Tech, FSU, Louisville, at NC State, Duke, Virginia Tech, Syracuse).
• UNC shot 50 percent from the field against Clemson, the first time the Tar Heels had hit or bettered that mark since a win over UNCW on Dec. 20 and just the third time all season. (The other was vs. Navy in the second game of the season.)
• UNC has lost only twice when shooting better than 40 percent from the field. The Tar Heels hit 46.2 percent of their shots in the loss to Louisville and then shot 40.7 in the loss at NC State.
• The NC State home game marked the largest UNC deficit in a win this season. The Tar Heels trailed by 14 in the second quarter before coming back to win, 66-60.
• Taylor Koenen is just the fifth player in program history to total 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists. (The four players who previously reached those marks – Tonya Sampson, Erlana Larkins, Rashanda McCants and La'Tangela Atkinson – all went on to play professionally in the WNBA or ABL.) She's just the third who adds 100 three-pointers to those totals, with the others being Sampson and McCants.
• Against Miami, Shayla Bennett had seven assists and no turnovers.
• Janelle Bailey's 28 points vs. Miami marked the most by a Tar Heel this season. Her 17 rebounds in the home game against Virginia is a team high for boards.
• Junior Janelle Bailey was named Co-ACC Player of the Week on Feb. 3 after averaging 23 points and 13 rebounds in wins over Virginia and Clemson.
• UNC signee Deja Kelly was one of 24 high school players named to the 2020 McDonald's All-American Game roster. She's the first Tar Heel picked for the prestigious event since Janelle Bailey in 2017.

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Players Mentioned

Janelle Bailey

Shayla Bennett

Leah Church

Taylor Koenen

Malu Tshitenge

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University of North Carolina Athletics