Carolina Hosts No. 3 NC State Sunday At Carmichael

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina will host NC State Sunday afternoon at Carmichael Arena for the teams' second matchup of the season. Tipoff is 4 p.m. and the game will air on the ACC Network.

Click here for tickets. UNC students and staff are admitted free with a OneCard.

The Tar Heels are looking to forget some recent history – a 72-45 loss to the Wolfpack in Raleigh earlier this month – but repeat some that's a little further back: a Carolina team has beaten a highly-ranked NC State team in Chapel Hill in each of the past two seasons.

Carolina, ranked No. 22 in this week's coaches' poll and second among teams receiving votes in the Associated Press poll, comes into the game 16-3 overall and 6-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play after a 78-62 win at Duke on Thursday.

NC State, ranked No. 3 in both polls, is 18-2 overall and off to a 9-0 start in ACC play. The Wolfpack hasn't lost to an ACC opponent since falling to the Tar Heels at Carmichael last February.

Noting the Tar Heels
• The Tar Heels are celebrating Alumni Day on Sunday, welcoming more than 50 former players back to Chapel Hill.
• Sunday's game is the second in a stretch of three straight against in-state ACC rivals. UNC won at Duke on Thursday and travels to Wake Forest this coming Thursday.
• Sophomore guard Deja Kelly leads UNC and is third in the ACC in scoring with 16.7 points per game, up from 11.0 per game last season. She scored in double figures in the first 17 games of the season then had six at Georgia Tech and seven at Duke.
• UNC is fifth in the latest NET ranking and has been in the top five all season.
• UNC coach Courtney Banghart, in her 15th season as a head coach and her third in Chapel Hill, has a career record of 299-131 after Thursday's win at Duke. With Carolina's next victory, she'll become the sixth among current ACC coaches to reach 300 wins.
• Carolina ranks in the top three in the ACC in scoring (3), scoring defense (3), scoring margin (1), rebounds (2), defensive rebounds (2), offensive rebounds (2), field goal percentage defense (2), three-point percentage defense (1), steals (2) and turnover margin (1).
• UNC has held all but two opponents this season to sub-40 field goal shooting. The only schools to top that have been ACC opponents BC (49.1 percent) and NC State (41.8). Opponents are shooting .334 and Carolina ranks second in the league in field goal percentage defense.
• The Carolina defense has forced all 17 opponents into double-digit turnovers and has forced 20+ eight times this season.
• UNC is 10-0 this season when reaching double digits in steals. The Tar Heels average 10.4 per game, second in the ACC.
• Kennedy Todd-Williams set a new career high with 15 points against Virginia and then matched that two games later against Duke. In between, she led the Tar Heels in scoring at Georgia Tech with 10 points. Her current double-figure scoring streak of four games is the longest of her career.

UNC vs. NC State
UNC and NC State are meeting for the 115th time in a rivalry that dates back to the 1974-75 season, Carolina's first as a varsity program under the umbrella of the Department of Athletics.
NC State leads the series 61-53 and has won the two most-recent meetings, both of which have been played in Raleigh. Earlier this month, the Wolfpack won 72-45 at Reynolds Coliseum, handing Carolina its first loss of the season.
The Wolfpack also won last year's second meeting, 82-63 in Raleigh on Feb. 21, 2021.
• UNC's last win in the series came in last year's meeting in Chapel Hill, 76-69 on Feb. 7, 2021 at Carmichael Arena. Current sophomore Alyssa Ustby led UNC with 20 points in that game, shooting 8-10 from the field and 4-4 from three. She and fellow sophomore Kennedy Todd-Williams both started that game.
• The teams have split the two meetings in each of the past three seasons. In the last two years, each team has won on its home court. In 2018-19 that trend was reversed, with each winning on the road.
• Prior to the past three seasons, NC State won four in a row and six of seven dating back to the 2015-16 season. Before that, UNC won eight in a row, dating back to the 2011-12 season.

Scouting the Wolfpack
NC State is 18-2 overall and 9-0 in ACC play. The team has been idle since a 51-45 homecourt win over Virginia Tech last Sunday.
• NC State is off to a 9-0 start in ACC play for the third time in program history. Including the 2021 ACC Championship, the team has won its last 17 games against conference opponents dating back to last season's loss to Carolina in Chapel Hill.
• Senior center Elissa Cunane leads the team in scoring with 13.8 points per game. Diamond Johnson is the only other Wolfpack player averaging in double figures (12.0), but four others average 7.1 or more. Cunane also leads the team in rebounds with 7.9 per game.
• As a team, NC State leads the ACC in scoring, rebounding margin and three-point percentage.

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Players Mentioned

Deja Kelly

Kennedy Todd-Williams

Alyssa Ustby

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University of North Carolina Athletics