UNC Battles Back But Falls To No. 1 Louisville

Thursday, January 28

Louisville, Ky.

8:00 PM

North Carolina

8-6,3-6ACC

Louisville

16-0,9-0ACC

North Carolina

Louisville

Freshman Alyssa Ustby finished with eight points and 10 rebounds at Louisville.

January 28, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

By: UNC Athletic Communications

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – North Carolina fell 79-68 Thursday night at No. 1 Louisville in an Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball matchup. Playing at the Cardinals' KFC Yum Center, the Tar Heels trailed by as many as 32 points but cut the margin to single digits before falling by 11.

The undefeated Cardinals improved to 16-0 overall and 9-0 in ACC play, while the Tar Heels fell to 8-6 (3-6 ACC).

UNC now looks ahead to another road matchup, on Sunday at Virginia Tech. Game time in Blacksburg, Va., is 4 p.m. and the game will be broadcast by the ACC Network.

Graduate guard Petra Holešínská scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Tar Heels with her second 20-point game in a row. (She had 24 on Sunday against Notre Dame.) She was 5-for-10 from three-point range and 10-for-17 overall. Senior center Janelle Bailey, who was hampered by foul trouble and picked up her fifth with 1:10 to play, finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. Graduate guard Stephanie Watts had 10 points and freshman Alyssa Ustby finished with eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Louisville shot a blistering 66.7 percent from the field in the first quarter to take a 30-16 lead 10 minutes in. By halftime the Cardinals had stretched the advantage to 25, leading 55-30. It marked the highest total the Tar Heels have allowed in a half this year and included 8-for-14 three-point shooting by the home team.

The Cardinals continued to extend their lead in the third quarter, eventually going up by 32 with 2:52 to play in the period. But Tar Heels didn't fold, mounting an 11-4 run to end the quarter and make it 71-46 heading into the fourth.

UNC opened the final quarter with a 14-0 run to close the gap to 11 points, 71-60 on a layup by Kennedy Todd-Williams with 4:43 to play in the game. Holešínská hit a three-pointer with 1:56 to play to make it a single-digit game, and the Tar Heels drew within eight on a free throw by Bailey with 1:18 remaining, but got no closer.

"I'm really proud of the effort," Holešínská said.

UNC shot 52.9 percent (9-17) in the fourth quarter to finish at 44.8 for the game, the Tar Heels' second-best percentage in ACC play. Carolina outrebounded the Cardinals 35-34.

"I really like what this team is becoming," UNC coach Courtney Banghart. "There's no quit in this group. It honestly wasn't that we played poorly, it was that they really shot lights-out to start the game. It's something that happens very rarely in a season. Our guys took the punch and then we started punching back. If you take the first quarter out of that game it's a very good basketball game for both teams."