Paris Paces WBB With 22 Points In Win At Clemson

Sunday, January 29

Clemson, S.C.

4 PM

North Carolina

16-5,7-3ACC

Clemson

13-10,4-7ACC

North Carolina

Clemson

Paulina Paris led UNC with a career-high 22 points on Sunday at Clemson.

Photo by: Dawson Powers

January 29, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

CLEMSON, S.C. – The No. 15 North Carolina women's basketball team led wire-to-wire to earn an Atlantic Coast Conference road win Sunday at Clemson, 69-58. The Tar Heels improved to 16-5 overall and 7-3 in ACC play with their seventh consecutive win, the longest streak against conference opponents since the 2008-09 season.

Freshman Paulina Paris, making her first career start, led Carolina with 22 points, including six three-pointers. She also had a career-high five steals as UNC totaled 16 takeaways, equal to the team's season high.

"Huge game for Paulina," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. "I'm not surprised – I'm a big fan of Paulina's game. She's a really good basketball player – she's tough, she stays locked in, she's what we need when we need it. We needed a lot of it today and she brought it."

Junior Kennedy Todd-Williams was the only other Tar Heel in double figures with 15 points. Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby added nine points each, with Ustby leading the way in rebounds with 11 and Kelly pacing the Tar Heels in assists with six.

Redshirt freshman Kayla McPherson made her Tar Heel debut midway through the first quarter. After missing the last season and a half with injuries, she came off the bench to play 17 minutes and contribute eight points, two rebounds, two steals and an assist, much to the delight of the entire Carolina team.

"I would be remiss not to talk about welcome back to Kayla McPherson, a kid that's done so much to get back and she's been out a long time," Banghart said. "You saw glimpses today of how good she's going to be for us. I just told my guys in the locker room, I won't quickly forget how much they celebrated her, genuinely, when her name was called."

UNC opened the game with an 8-0 run over the first 2:29, going 3-5 from the field while Clemson was 0-1 over that same span. Todd-Williams hit her first four shots and finished the first quarter with 10 points, more than the entire Clemson team, which scored nine in the first period.

Paris closed the second quarter with back-to-back-to-back threes and the Tar Heels led 36-17 at halftime, limiting the Tigers to the fewest points by an opponent in ACC play.

UNC went up by 22 early in the third quarter before Clemson used a 17-0 run to pull within four points. Carolina scored just five points in the first eight minutes of the period, all by Paris, and finished with seven points in the quarter, the Tar Heels' lowest in a period this season.

Carolina was up by four, 43-39, heading into the fourth period, but outscored Clemson 26-19 in the final 10 minutes to earn the win. UNC put together a 10-0 run to go up by as many as 15 but didn't score a field goal in the final 4:24 of play.

UNC won the rebounding battle for the third game in a row, beating Clemson 42-36 on the boards.

Paris became the fifth Tar Heel to score 20+ points this season. She led UNC in scoring for the second time in ACC play, with her previous best 16 points off the bench against Notre Dame.

It's the fifth time this season that UNC has led from start to finish, but the first in ACC play.