Tar Heels Set For Final Road Game Of Regular Season

Thursday, February 27

Notre Dame, Ind.

7 PM

North Carolina

Notre Dame

The Tar Heels are in action at Notre Dame on Thursday night.

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

February 26, 2020 | Women's Basketball

Game Notes

By: UNC Athletic Communications

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The North Carolina women's basketball team plays its third consecutive road game and its final away contest of the season on Thursday, taking on Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
The Tar Heels are 16-11 overall and 7-9 in Atlantic Coast Conference play after falling in their last five games, most 82-79 in overtime at Wake Forest on Sunday afternoon.
Notre Dame is 11-17 overall and 6-10 in ACC play heading into its final home game of the season. The team closes out the regular season on Sunday at Florida State.
After Thursday's game, Carolina has just one game left in the regular season, at home against Duke on Sunday. In the final Carmichael Arena game of 2019-20, UNC will celebrate Senior Day, honoring its seven seniors.

The UNC-UND Series
The Tar Heels and Fighting Irish meet Thursday for the 11th time in a series that dates back to the 1999-2000 season. The teams have met just three times on Notre Dame's home court, with the host team winning all three:
Feb. 27, 2014 – ND 100, UNC 75
Jan. 10, 2016 – ND 88, UNC 54
Feb. 1, 2018 – ND 94, UNC 62
• UNC and Notre Dame split last year's matchups, with the Tar Heels beating the top-ranked Fighting Irish 78-83 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 27, 2019, in the regular-season meeting. The two then met in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on March 8 in Greensboro, N.C., where Notre Dame won 95-77 on the way to its fifth ACC title in a six-year span.

Scouting Notre Dame
Notre Dame is 11-17 overall and 6-10 in ACC play following a 72-70 homecourt win on Sunday against Syracuse. Prior to that, ND had lost three games in a row.
• The Fighting Irish are led in scoring by graduate guard Destinee Walker, a former Tar Heel who is averaging 14.7 points per game. Also in double figures are freshman forward Sam Brunelle at 13.4 points per game and sophomore guard Katlyn Gilbert at 13.2.
• In the ACC rankings, ND is third in steals and three-point percentage and fourth in assists.
For more on Notre Dame, click here.

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 (74.1 ppg) and in assist/turnover ratio (1.16), with 389 assists and a league-low 335 turnovers. The Tar Heels are second in turnover margin (+2.63) and in free throw percentage (.734).
• UNC is 27th in the NCAA in assist/turnover ratio and 30th in offense.
• Freshman Malu Tshitenge leads the league and ranks 13th in the nation in offensive rebounds (4.1 per game). Senior Shayla Bennett leads the league in assist/turnover ratio (2.04) and is third in assists (5.2). Bailey is third in total rebounds (9.5) and in defensive rebounds (7.2).
• Two Tar Heels rank in the league's top five in free throw shooting: Bennett at No. 4 (.819) 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 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.
• All five UNC starters have led the scoring effort in at least two games this season.
• In this week's NCAA rankings, UNC is 13th in free throws made, 17th in turnovers per game, 27th in assist-turnover ratio and 30th in scoring offense
• Individually, freshman Malu Tshitenge ranks 13th nationally in offensive rebounds. Bailey is 19th in defensive rebounding and Shayla Bennett is 21sr in assists.