WBB Wins Fifth In A Row, Beating Georgia Tech 70-57

Sunday, January 22

Chapel Hill

4 PM

North Carolina

14-5,5-3ACC

Georgia Tech

10-10,1-8ACC

Georgia Tech

North Carolina

Alyssa Ustby finished with 17 points and eight rebounds in Sunday's win.

Photo by: Jerome M. Ibrahim

January 22, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina women's basketball team beat visiting Georgia Tech 70-57 at Carmichael Arena on Sunday to earn its fifth Atlantic Coast Conference win in a row. After a three-game homestand, the Tar Heels are now 14-5 overall and 5-3 in ACC play heading into Thursday's game at Pittsburgh.

"Our team is getting better and better and I think that was on display today," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said.

Junior guard Deja Kelly led UNC with 18 points including a season-best four three-pointers, which she hit on just six attempts. She was 7-14 from the field and also grabbed five rebounds.

Three others hit double figures, giving the Tar Heels four players with 10 or more points for the first time since the Florida State game on Dec. 29. Alyssa Ustby scored 17 points on 7-10 shooting and grabbed a team-high eight boards as UNC won the rebounding battle 42-35. Kennedy Todd-Williams scored 13 points and totaled seven rebounds. Eva Hodgson added 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers and two free throws that brought her current streak without a miss from the foul line to 17 in a row.

Tonie Morgan led Georgia Tech (10-10, 1-8 ACC) with 15 points and eight rebounds. Cameron Swartz came off the bench for 13, including three three-pointers.

After the teams exchanged advantages to start, Carolina took the lead for good at 11-9 with 4:42 to play in the first quarter. Kelly beat the buzzer with a jumper to end the period and put her team up 18-11 heading into the second quarter. UNC pushed the lead to as many as 10, on a three by Todd-Williams with 2:22 until halftime. Carolina was 4-5 from three-point range in the second quarter, including two by Kelly. One of them capped the quarter to put UNC up 37-28 at halftime.

UNC's largest lead in ACC play so far in the season had been 11 points, but the Tar Heels went up by 13 on an Ustby layup with 6:35 to play in the third. The home team pushed the lead to as many as 21, on a layup by Paulina Paris with just over two minutes to play in the quarter. The Yellow Jackets got back within 12 late in the game after shooting 53.8 percent from the field in the fourth quarter to outscore the Tar Heels 18-13 in the period.

UNC's 44.4 percentage (8-18) from three-point range marked a high so far in ACC play and the Tar Heels' second best shooting day of the season.

Carolina shot 50 percent or better in the first through third quarters before slipping to .27.3 percent in the fourth and 47.4 for the game. Still, it was UNC's second-best shooting percentage of the conference season, just behind the Tar Heels' 48.9 in Thursday's win over No. 13 Duke.

"So far that's five," said Banghart, whose team has won five ACC games in a row for the first time in her UNC tenure after dropping its first three in conference play. "I'm really thrilled with the growth of our offense over the last two weeks or so, playing better on that end and having the maturation on that end that we want."