Tar Heels Improve To 12-0 With Gritty Homecourt Win

Thursday, December 30

Chapel Hill

4 PM

North Carolina

12-0,2-0ACC

Syracuse

8-5,1-2ACC

Syracuse

North Carolina

A strong defensive performance helped UNC beat Syracuse on Thursday.

Photo by: Jerome M. Ibrahim

December 30, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team kept its undefeated record intact and improved to 2-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with a lopsided homecourt win over Syracuse Sunday afternoon, 79-43 at Carmichael Arena.

The No. 24 Tar Heels are 12-0 overall following their first ACC home game of the season. They have another coming up on Sunday, with Clemson visiting Carmichael for a 6 p.m. tipoff.

Five Carolina players hit double figures against the Orange (8-5, 1-2), led by sophomores Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby with 12 points each. Kelly, who scored eight points in a row late in the third quarter, also contributed five rebounds and a career-high two blocks. Ustby turned in her sixth double-double of the season with a team-high 14 rebounds and also led the team in assists with a career-high six.

Sophomore forward Anya Poole scored 11 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the season and third of her career. Junior Eva Hodgson also scored 11 and Kennedy Todd-Williams added 10, including 6-for-6 free throw shooting.

Short-handed Syracuse, which had just seven healthy players, shot 21.1 from the field. Teisha Hyman led the Orange with 11 points and Alaina Rice scored 10.

The Tar Heels shot 39.5 percent on the day, one of their worst shooting performances of the season, but made up for it in other areas. They grabbed a season-high 63 rebounds (to Syracuse's 37) and forced 23 turnovers. The Tar Heels led 26-4 in points off turnovers, 50-10 in points in the paint and 22-3 in second-chance points.

"This was a gritty win," Ustby said. "We know it's not pretty when we're playing, we see the turnovers, we see the messy fumble catches. We saw it and we tried to make an adjustment, and we made enough of an adjustment to come out with a win.

"One thing we hold constant is our pride on defense and playing together, and that's really what propelled us to be able to start producing on offense."

After shooting 33.3 percent in the first quarter, the Tar Heels boosted that to 47.1 percent (8-17) in the second. They led 37-25 at halftime and the margin was never closer that than in the second half, with 37 (72-35 with 2:31 to play) the largest of the game.

UNC's three-point shooting percentage (16.0) was its second lowest of the season, as was the team's free throw percentage (52.4).

"We didn't shoot very well, which I guess is sometimes to be expected after the break," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "As I told them in (the locker room), we had to be gritty because we weren't pretty. But we're going to keep working to be both gritty and pretty."

✌️ and 0 in ACC play after today's win at Carmichael We kick off the new year at home Sunday, hosting Clemson at 6 p.m. See you then, Tar Heels! 🏀👣#GoHeels x #InPursuit pic.twitter.com/NzEBjAomGy
— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) December 31, 2021