WBB Hits Season Scoring High In Homecourt Win

Sunday, December 11

Chapel Hill

1 PM

North Carolina

8-1,0-0ACC

Wofford

7-3,0-0SoCon

Wofford

North Carolina

The Tar Heels improved to 8-1 with a lopsided win over Wofford.

Photo by: ANTHONY SORBELLINI

December 11, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina hit its highest scoring total in almost a year and saw two players score 20 points in the same game for the first time in almost two years as the No. 8 Tar Heels beat visiting Wofford 99-67 on Sunday afternoon in a women's basketball game at Carmichael Arena.

The Tar Heels improved to 8-1 and will play their final nonconference home game of the season on Friday, hosting USC-Upstate at 6 p.m.

"Great energy on both ends," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "When the ball moves, we're hard to guard. Overall just a really good effort by our guys."

Eva Hodgson and Kennedy Todd-Williams led the Carolina scoring with 20 points each. Hodgson equaled her career best with five three-pointers (on just six attempts) and Todd-Williams matched her career best with four as the Tar Heels totaled a season-high 12 makes from long range.

Alyssa Ustby scored 17 points and grabbed a team-best 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season and second in as many games. Destiny Adams also reached double figures with 10 points and seven rebounds.

Jackie Carman led the Terriers, who had won their last seven in a row and fell to 7-3 overall, with 18 points. Rachael Rose added 12 for Wofford. The Terriers hit 13 three-pointers, the high by a UNC opponent this year.

It took the Tar Heels a little time to get rolling – Wofford was ahead by a point, 9-8, four minutes into the action and UNC shot just 34.8 percent in the first quarter to lead 24-21 heading into the second. But the home team hit 10 of 16 shots in the second quarter to take control of the game. Midway through the period the Tar Heels used a 12-0 run to turn a three-point margin into a 15-point lead (43-28 with 4:15 to be before halftime on a layup by Ustby), and they held onto a double-digit advantage for the rest of the game.

Ustby had seven rebounds in the first seven minutes of play and already had a double-double at halftime with 11 points and 10 boards in her first 19 minutes of play. She finished with a career-high nine offensive rebounds – Wofford's entire team had seven – as the Tar Heels scored 25 second-chance points.

The Tar Heels had a season-high in three-pointers by halftime with eight, and they finished with 12 on 30 attempts with the highlight a 5-for-8 second quarter in which Todd-Williams was 3-4 and Hodgson was 2-2. Todd-Williams scored 13 in that quarter alone on the way to her 20-point day. It's the third time this season that she's hit for 20, which remains her career high.

The last time two or more Tar Heels hit 20 points in the same game was on Dec. 17, 2020, in a homecourt win over Syracuse. (That game saw three Tar Heels with 20+.)

UNC's 99 points is the team's highest scoring total since Dec. 12, 2021, when Carolina scored 107 against UNC-Asheville. It appeared that the Tar Heels would get past 100 late in the game – with about 90 seconds remaining and 99 points on the board, freshman Paulina Paris passed up a look to try to get the ball to senior Ariel Young, who was seeing game action for just the second time since returning from a knee injury. But the pass resulted in a turnover and the Tar Heels missed three more shots before the buzzer.

"I think it says a lot about our team when Paulina had a chance to score 100, she had a chance to score 10 points [for her personal scoring total], and instead she so desperately wanted Ariel to have her first basket after being out so long," Banghart said. "I think that kind of encapsulates what we're about."