UNC WBB Set To Face No. 1 South Carolina In Sweet 16

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team was the final squad to earn a ticket into the Sweet 16, wrapping up its second-round win at fourth-seeded Arizona just before Monday night turned to Tuesday morning on the East Coast. Just under four days later, the fifth-seeded Tar Heels will play in the first regional semifinal game to tip off, taking on top-seeded South Carolina in the Greensboro Regional Friday evening at 7.

The Tar Heels (25-6) are making their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2015, when they also took on top-seeded South Carolina in the Greensboro Region. That year, the Gamecocks won 67-65. The previous year, UNC won a Sweet 16 matchup with South Carolina played in Stanford, Calif., 65-58, making this the third regional semifinal in a row in which Carolina has faced its neighbor to the south.

The game, UNC's first matchup with team ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll since 2019, will air on ESPN and also on both the Tar Heel Sports Network and Westwood One Radio Network.

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The Tar Heels are one of four Atlantic Coast Conference teams still in action, tied for the most of any conference. UNC is one of three schools, along with Iowa State and Michigan, to have women's and men's teams in the Sweet 16.

Tar Heels vs. Gamecocks
The Tar Heels and Gamecocks will face off Friday for the 20th time in program history and the first since the 2014-15 season. That year, the teams met in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row with top-seeded South Carolina winning 67-65 in a Greensboro Region semifinal game at the Greensboro Coliseum. UNC was the No. 4 seed and had advanced with two homecourt wins.
• The teams also met the previous year, with fourth-seeded North Carolina winning 65-58 over top-seeded South Carolina in Stanford, Calif. UNC fell to the host Cardinal in the region final.
• Those 2014 and 2015 regional semifinals meetings are the teams' only ones in the NCAA Tournament.
• This is UNC's third Sweet 16 in a row facing off against the Gamecocks (following 2014 and 2015).
• UNC and USC last met in a non-neutral-site game in the 1988-89 season, when the Gamecocks won 98-71 in Columbia.
• Both teams rank in the NCAA's top 20 in rebounding, scoring defense, scoring margin, field goal percentage defense and three-point percentage defense.
• UNC leads the all-time series 11-8.

Tournament Tar Heels
North Carolina earned an at-large NCAA Tournament bid for the second year in a row and is seeded fifth in the Greensboro Region.
• UNC is making its 29th NCAA Tournament appearance and is 49-27 overall (including the two wins this season) with an NCAA Championship in 1994 and Final Fours in 1994, 2006 and 2007.
• Prior to this year, the Tar Heels' most recent NCAA Tournament victory was in 2015 – they've made two appearances since then, with first-round losses in 2019 and 2021.
• Prior to this year, UNC last won a tournament game away from Chapel Hill in 2014. That year, Carolina opened with two wins at home and advanced to the regional semifinal in Stanford, Calif., where the Tar Heels knocked off top-seeded South Carolina in the Sweet 16. UNC fell to host Stanford, the No. 2 seed, in the regional final.
• The Tar Heels are 22-1 all-time in NCAA Tournament games in Chapel Hill and 27-26 in games away from home, including two wins in 2022.
• UNC is a No. 5 seed for the third time in school history and is 4-2 overall in the previous two appearances, with all three including a trip out west.

UNC vs. No. 1
Carolina is 3-26 all-time vs. AP No. 1 ranked teams.
• UNC last played a team ranked No. 1 in the AP poll in the 2018-19 season, when the Tar Heels upset Notre Dame 78-73 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 27, 2019.

Trending
• Five Tar Heels have scored in double figures in two of the past three games (ACC Quarterfinals loss to Va Tech in OT, NCAA 1st round win over SFA). UNC has had five or more in double figures six times this season, but those are the only two instances since December.
• Deja Kelly's 20 points in the second half vs. Stephen F. Austin marked the highest total by a Tar Heel in a half this season. She finished that game with 28 for her seventh 20-point game this season.
• Carlie Littlefield, a 5-9 point guard, is averaging 7.0 rebounds over the past four games, including a career-high 10 vs Duke on her Senior Day and nine in the NCAA first-round win. That's more than double her average (3.4 rpg) through the first 27 games, coming into the Duke game. She's now at 3.9 rpg for the season.
• Carolina has won the rebounding battle in its last 11 games in a row. The Tar Heels were last outrebounded on Jan. 30 by NC State (beaten 41-36 on the boards in a 66-58 loss). In the 11 games since then, Carolina is outrebounding opponents by a +8.0 margin (41.8 to 33.8). For the season, the team's rebounding margin is +7.3 (43.0 to 35.7).
• After going 4-4 in January, the Tar Heels were 7-1 in February. They're 2-1 so far in March.
• Alyssa Ustby has six double-doubles in the past 11 games and is averaging 13.2 ppg and 9.5 rpg over that span. She ranks fourth in the league in rebounds with 8.7 per game this season. In a nod to her versatility, she's the only player in the ACC who ranks in the top five in both offensive (2nd, 3.0 per game) and defensive (4th, 5.68 per game) rebounds per game.
• Kennedy Todd-Williams set a new career high with 19 points against Louisville on Feb. 17 and matched that against Arizona on March 21. She's scored in double figures the last seven games in a row, bookended by those 19-point outings, and is averaging 14.1 points per game over that span

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Players Mentioned

Deja Kelly

Carlie Littlefield

Kennedy Todd-Williams

Alyssa Ustby