Tar Heels Head To Winston-Salem For Sunday Matchup with Wake

Following a week of rest, recovery and preparation, the North Carolina women's basketball team heads for Winston-Salem, N.C., to meet Wake Forest Sunday. The Tar Heels (16-10, 7-8 ACC) had their one bye in the conference schedule on Thursday, so have been idle for a week, since playing at Boston College on Feb. 16. It's the longest gap between games the team has had since returning to action from the holiday break on Dec. 28.

Tipoff at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum is at noon and the game will air on the Regional Sports Networks. Click here for more information on local networks, or click here to watch online on ACC Network Extra.

After Sunday's game, the Tar Heels play at Notre Dame on Thursday before hosting Duke on March 1 to finish the regular season.

UNC vs. Wake Forest
The Tar Heels and Demon Deacons meet Sunday for the 79th time in a series that dates back to the 1974-75 season, UNC's first as a varsity program under the umbrella of the Department of Athletics.
• UNC has won the last two meetings and 15 of the past 17.
• In the most recent matchup, Carolina won 84-61 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 17, 2019. Taylor Koenen was 8-for-9 from the field and led the Tar Heels with 21 points.
• The last time the teams met in Winston-Salem, on Jan. 14, 2018, UNC won 79-76 in overtime. Janelle Bailey led UNC with 30 points and 19 rebounds. The rebounding total still stands as her career high.

Scouting the Demon Deacons
Wake Forest is 13-14 overall and 6-10 in ACC play coming off a 78-67 loss at FSU on Thursday.
Junior forward Ivana Raca leads the team in scoring with 16.6 points per game. Senior guard Alex Sharp is the rebounding leader with 8.9 per game and ranks second in scoring with 12.5 points per game. Junior guard Gina Conti is also in double figures with 10.0 points per game.
As a team, WFU is third in free throw percentage (.735) and third in rebounding margin (+7.04).

By the Numbers
• All five UNC starters are scoring in double figures, led by junior Janelle Bailey with 14.9 points per game.
• UNC leads the ACC in scoring (73.9 ppg) and in assist/turnover ratio (1.19), with 382 assists and a league-low 321 turnovers. The Tar Heels are second in turnover margin (+2.58) and assists (14.7).
• Freshman Malu Tshitenge leads the league and ranks 10th in the nation in offensive rebounds (4.27 per game). Senior Shayla Bennett is second in the ACC assist/turnover ratio (2.06) and third in assists (5.2). Bailey is third in total rebounds (9.5) and tied for second in defensive rebounds (7.2).
• Two Tar Heels rank in the league's top five in free throw shooting: Bennett at No. 4 (.820) and Bailey at No. 5 (.805). No other team has two among even the top 10.

Notables
• Junior Janelle Bailey was announced on Feb. 14 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.
• Senior Taylor Koenen was announced on Feb. 21 as one of 50 senior conference student-athletes to receive ACC Weaver-James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarships/Awards. She's the only women's basketball player in the conference to earn the prestigious honor this year.
• Bailey is six points from becoming the 13th Tar Heel with 1,400 career points and 800 rebounds.
• Sunday's game is expected to be Koenen's 100th career start.
• All five UNC starters have led the scoring effort in at least two games this season.
• In this week's NCAA rankings, UNC is 16th in turnovers per game, 22nd in assist-turnover ratio, 31st in scoring offense and 40th in scoring margin.
• Individually, freshman Malu Tshitenge ranks 10th nationally in offensive rebounds. Bailey is 20th in defensive rebounding and Shayla Bennett is 20th in assists.
• UNC's last trip to Winston-Salem marked then-freshman Janelle Bailey's first 30-point game in a Tar Heel uniform. Now a junior, she has a total of three 30-point games, but does not have one yet this season (one as a freshman, two as a sophomore – this year's high is 28).
• UNC is 5-2 in Thursday ACC games and 1-6 on Sundays. (The opening conference game of the season, a win over Pitt, was on a Monday.)
• Two Tar Heels come into Sunday's game looking to bounce back from season lows in categories in which they rank among the ACC's best: Shayla Bennett led UNC in scoring and rebounding but had a season-low one assist at BC. (She ranks third in the ACC in assists.) Janelle Bailey scored 10 points but had a season-low one rebound against the Eagles. (She ranks third in the ACC in rebounding.)

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Players Mentioned

Janelle Bailey

Shayla Bennett

Taylor Koenen

Malu Tshitenge

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University of North Carolina Athletics