WBB Knocks Off No. 5 Iowa State To Win PKI Title

Sunday, November 27

Portland, Ore.

7:30 PM

North Carolina

Iowa State

The Tar Heels celebrated their PKI championship with Phil Knight himself.

November 27, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PORTLAND, Ore. – The No. 8 North Carolina women's basketball team fought back from a 17-point deficit to beat No. 5 Iowa State 73-64 Sunday evening at the Moda Center in the championship game of the Phil Knight Invitational.

Junior Deja Kelly led UNC with 29 points, 22 of them after halftime, and was named the tournament MVP. Kennedy Todd-Williams scored 17, all in the second half, Alyssa Ustby had 14 and Eva Hodgson 11 as the Tar Heels improved to 6-0 overall.

It marked the third game in a row, all away from home and two against ranked teams, that Carolina has come back from a halftime deficit to win.

"We're watching them become a team in front of our eyes," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said.

UNC moves on quickly to another challenge: the Tar Heels play at No. 6 Indiana on Thursday in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

The Tar Heels got off to a slow start, missing their first five shots, and trailed 35-22 at halftime after shooting just 21 percent from the field (7-33) over the first 20 minutes. Carolina had hit just one of its seven three-point attempts and was being outrebounded 32-20.

UNC, the designated visiting team, began its surge in the third quarter and continued to chip away. Carolina pulled within six points late in the third quarter after Kelly hit two of three free throws and then a layup on the following possession. The Tar Heels trailed by eight, 53-45, heading into the fourth quarter.

Carolina scored the first 14 points of the quarter, taking a 59-53 lead before Iowa State made a shot. Todd-Williams hit a jumper, Hodgson and Kelly back-to-back threes, Todd-Williams two more buckets and then Kelly a layup to put the Tar Heels up by six with 6:10 to play. The Cyclones tied it up at 64-64 with less than a minute to play but Kelly answered with another layup to give her team the advantage for good.

UNC hit 65.4 percent of its shots after halftime – compared with 21.2 percent in the first half – to earn the win. (When asked to comment on her team's performance, Banghart joked "Which game? The first half or the second half?")

The Tar Heels had a season-high 10 blocks, led by redshirt freshman Teonni Key's three in just 14 minutes of play.

Ustby, who was named to the PKI all-tournament team, came close to a double-double with a team-best nine boards. Kelly grabbed a season-high eight.

Kelly finished with zero turnovers in playing all but three minutes. (Over the Tar Heels' two games in Portland, she totaled 11 assists and just one turnover in 76 minutes on the court.)

Thursday in its first PKI game, UNC beat No. 18 Oregon 85-79 after trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half.

"We got better this weekend – that was our goal," Banghart said. "This by no means cements your season, it just give you an opportunity to know where we are and to get better, and we got better this weekend."