UNC Earns Homecourt Win Over Virginia

Thursday, January 20

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

Virginia

Kennedy Todd-Williams scored a career-high 15 points in Thursday's win.

Photo by: ANTHONY SORBELLINI

January 20, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team picked up a fifth Atlantic Coast Conference victory and improved to 9-0 at home this season with a 61-52 win over visiting Virginia Thursday evening at Carmichael Arena.

No. 20 Carolina is 15-2 overall and 5-2 in ACC play. The Cavaliers fell to 3-12 (0-5).

Sophomore Deja Kelly led UNC with 18 points, including UNC's first six of the game and a total of 11 in the first quarter. Kennedy Todd-Williams, also a sophomore, added a career-high 15 points, including 8-for-8 shooting from the foul line.

It was UNC's lowest-scoring home game this season and third-lowest of the year. The Tar Heels missed their first four shots before Kelly kicked off her personal 6-0 scoring run with a jumper to tie the game at 2-2. After a Virginia turnover, Kelly hit a three, was fouled, and successfully converted her fifth four-point play of the season and the third in the past two games. (She had two on Sunday at Notre Dame.)

That four-point lead was UNC's largest until the closing minute of a back-and-forth quarter, when the Tar Heels went up six on a pair of free throws from Kelly. Virginia led by four with 3:57 in the first quarter before a 10-2 run by the Tar Heels put the home team on top for good. UNC led 20-16 to end the period.

Back in the win column 👏 Highlights from tonight's game vs Virginia ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/cyLNDaiJ9P — Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) January 21, 2022

The second quarter was almost three minutes old by the time either team scored, and a lay-up by Alyssa Ustby gave the Tar Heels a six-point lead, 22-16, they'd continue to build upon. The game was never closer after that and UNC was up 32-20 at the half.

After trailing by double digits through the third period, the Cavaliers used a 7-0 run to cut the margin to nine early in the fourth quarter, but a jumper by Eva Hodgson again gave the Tar Heels a double-digit cushion. Virginia again cut into the lead in the final minutes, drawing within six, 58-52, with 41 seconds to play, but the Tar Heels kept the ball in the hands of the ACC's best free throw shooter, and Kelly made three of four down the stretch.

Kelly was 6-7 for the game as the Tar Heels went 18-25 (72 percent) for one of their best free-throw shooting nights at home this season.

Although the free throw percentage was on the high end, the field goal percentage was opposite. The Tar Heels' 19-60 night (31.7 percent) was the worst at home this season and the second-lowest percentage of the year.

"There's no secret we didn't play super great," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "We didn't shoot the ball well, we gave up 23 offensive rebounds. We weren't super sharp today but as I told them in (the locker room), we're not going to let a not-sharp effort impact how good we think we can be when we focus on the right things. And we know we have another opportunity on Sunday to be better, and we will work hard to be."

Next up for UNC is the team's third road game this month against a ranked team. The Tar Heels take on No. 15 Georgia Tech Sunday at noon in Atlanta.