Tar Heels Head Into Holiday Break With Win Over Alabama State

Tuesday, December 21

Chapel Hill

1 PM

North Carolina

Alabama State

UNC's Jaelynn Murray hit season highs in points (six) and rebounds (eight) in Tuesday's win.

Photo by: ANTHONY SORBELLINI

December 21, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team headed into the holiday break with a win Tuesday, beating Alabama State 83-47 in an afternoon game at Carmichael Arena. It's the final nonconference game for No. 25 UNC, which improved to 11-0 overall.

"That was a little bit of a sloppy game and there are probably a lot of factors that lead to that, but as I just told the team, they're going home 11-0," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "And there are not a lot of teams that can say they're 11-0 at this point in the season. So there's a whole lot to be proud of. I've come to really love this group of kids – they're not a finished product yet and that's OK because we look forward to getting better throughout the season."

The Tar Heels pick back up on Dec. 30 when Syracuse visits Carmichael for a 4 p.m. Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. Carolina opened ACC play on Sunday with a road win at Boston College.

Sophomore guard Deja Kelly led UNC with 16 points, all of which came before halftime. Her total marked the most by a Tar Heel in a half this season and helped propel her team to a 50-20 lead at the break.

Kelly has now scored in double figures in all 11 games this season. She was joined in double digits Tuesday by Eva Hodgson (14 points on 6-for-8 shooting off the bench), Kennedy Todd-Williams (11 points and a team-high seven rebounds) and Anya Poole (10 points to go with her career-high five blocks).

Tyesha Rudolph led the Hornets with 22 points.

Poole started the Tar Heels off strong, making her first two field goal attempts to give UNC a 4-0 lead a minute into the game. Carolina led throughout, with the margin at 19 points, 24-5, by the end of the first quarter. It marked the seventh time this season that the UNC defense has held its opponent in single digits in the first quarter.

After leading by 30 at halftime, the Tar Heels maintained a comfortable distance throughout the second half, with the largest margin reaching 43 points. Carolina hit that twice in the fourth quarter, once on a put-back by Todd-Williams with 3:49 to play (80-37) and again at the 2:32 mark after a layup by Jaelynn Murray, who reached season highs with six points and eight rebounds.

UNC went to the line a season-high 43 times, led by freshman Destiny Adams, who was 8-for-10 in free throws to finish with eight points. She also had six rebounds and three steals in 13:33 of play, all season highs.