UNC Improves To 3-0 With Big Win at Carmichael

Wednesday, November 17

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

3-0,0-0ACC

Appalachian State

2-2,0-0Sun Belt

Appalachian St.

North Carolina

Deja Kelly and the Tar Heels earned their third 45-point win of the season on Wednesday.

Photo by: Jerome M. Ibrahim

November 17, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery II Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The UNC women's basketball team improved to 3-0 with another lopsided win on Wednesday, beating visiting Appalachian State 89-44 at Carmichael Arena. This season marks the first time since 2011-12 that Carolina has opened with three victories by 45 points or more.

For the second game in a row, all 11 Tar Heels who played scored, much to the delight of the UNC bench and the enthusiastic Carmichael crowd. Sophomore guard Deja Kelly led the way with a season-high 18 points and sophomore forward Anya Poole added 16 on the heels of a career-best 17 points on Sunday in UNC's most recent game, an 89-33 win at Charlotte.

The Tar Heels are averaging 90 points this season, with at least 89 in all three games. They'll play their next four games away from Carmichael, starting with a trip to Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend to take on TCU on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

UNC has dominated its way out of the gates in all three games, not trailing for even a second so far this season. Against the Mountaineers on Wednesday the Tar Heels got off to another fast start, with a 22-4 advantage at the end of the first quarter. It marked the third time in three games the opponent has been limited to single digits in the first quarter.

The Tar Heels led 40-7 at halftime, marking the first time since 2013 UNC has held an opponent to single digits in the first half.

Kelly kicked off the second half with a four-point play, hitting her only free throw of the day after being knocked down as she nailed a three.

Also in double figures were two freshmen, Destiny Adams and Morasha Wiggins, for 10 points each off the bench. Adams scored hers on 4-for-6 shooting in just seven minutes of play while Wiggins hit her first two three-pointers and also grabbed four rebounds.

"Des in very limited minutes made a huge impact," Banghart said. "And then Morasha showed what she can do, on both ends. Young guys contributing early in the season and scoring that many points, it's a lot of things to be happy about."

Sophomore Kennedy Todd-Williams paced a defensive effort that saw the Tar Heels haul in 60 rebounds. Todd-Williams had a career-high 12 of those, Alyssa Ustby had eight, and Alexandra Zelaya had a season-best six, one shy of her career high.

Graduate student Carlie Littlefield led the way with six assists, while Todd-Williams handed out five and also had three steals.

The team combined for 15 steals and got 26 points off of turnovers. While Banghart saw plenty she liked, she described the game as "sloppy" and will look forward to getting back to work with her team before heading for Texas.

"It's not just about putting the ball in the basket," Banghart said of her team's defensive focus. "That's been the biggest shift for our team. We can be really good on that end. The first two games we were great, today we were good. We'll challenge our group to be great moving forward. I thought we had some lapses with our energy and effort. We weren't quite at our standard defensively tonight."