Tar Heels Set To Take On Tigers

CLEMSON, S.C. – North Carolina plays for its seventh Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball win in a row Sunday, taking on Clemson at the Tigers' Littlejohn Coliseum. Game time is 4 p.m.

The game will air live on ACC Network. Watch here and/or listen to the radio broadcast here.

The No. 15 Tar Heels are 15-5 overall and 6-3 in ACC play coming off a 72-57 win at Pitt on Thursday. Clemson is 13-9 overall and 4-6 in ACC play after an 85-74 loss at Georgia Tech Thursday.

Noting the Tar Heels
• UNC has three wins over ranked teams in conference play and five overall this season.
• This is Carolina's longest winning streak in ACC action since 2012-13, when the Tar Heels won their first six games in conference play. The last time UNC won seven or more ACC games in a row was in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons – Carolina went 14-0 in ACC play in 2007-08 and then won its first three games in 2008-09 for 17 in a row.
• Three Tar Heels currently rank in the conference's top 10 in scoring: Deja Kelly is fifth with 16.5 ppg, Kennedy Todd-Williams is eighth at 14.3 and Alyssa Ustby is 10th at 13.9.
• Alyssa Ustby is the reigning USBWA National Player of the Week, based on her play against Duke and Georgia Tech.
• In ACC games only the Tar Heels rank second in field goal percentage defense, with opponents shooting .343. In the team's current six-game ACC winning streak, opponents are shooting just .323. UNC ranks third in the ACC in scoring defense, allowing 59.3 ppg – over the past six games, that average is 54.3 ppg.
• After winning the rebounding battle just once in their first seven ACC games (vs. NC State), the Tar Heels have outrebounded their last two opponents, Georgia Tech (42-35) and Pitt (38-31). UNC still has a -2.9 rebounding margin in conference games and ranks 13th the league.
• After four games in a row in which they shot under 40 percent from the field, Carolina has been above that in each of the past three games. The Tar Heels shot 48.9 vs Duke (1/19) for their best shooting percentage so far in ACC play and 47.4 vs Georgia Tech (1/22) for a combined 48.0 (49-102) over those two home games. On Thursday at Pitt, UNC shot 46.2 percent.
• Carolina's scoring output at Pitt (72 points) and margin of victory (15 points) were both season highs in ACC play.
• Alyssa Ustby had a season-high five steals at Pitt on Thursday and is averaging 3.0 per game over the last six contests. (She's at 2.4 in ACC play, 1.9 for the season.)
• The Tar Heels shot 44.4 percent from three-point range against Georgia Tech, a high in ACC play. UNC has shot 40 percent or better from three-point range on six occasions this season, twice against conference opponents.
• Six Tar Heels have led the team in scoring or tied for the lead in at least one game this season.
• Deja Kelly has seven games this season of 20 points or more, including 23 on Thursday at Pitt. She was 7-14 from the field, 3-6 from three and 6-6 from the foul line.
• Alyssa Ustby ranks in the ACC's top 10 in scoring (10th), rebounding (4th), field goal percentage (5th), blocks (9th) and steals (10th).
• Kennedy Todd-Williams scored a career-high 22 points on Thursday at Pitt. It was her fifth game in a row in double digits and her ninth in a row (longest on the team) with at least one three-pointer.

Tar Heels vs. Tigers
The Tar Heels and Tigers are meeting for the 89th time in a rivalry that dates back to the 1975-76 season, Carolina's second as a varsity program under the umbrella of the Department of Athletics.
The Tar Heels lead the overall series 60-28 after winning the last five and 10 of the past 12.
• In last year's matchup, on Jan. 2, 2022 in Chapel Hill, then-sophomore Deja Kelly scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Tar Heels to an 81-62 victory.
Carolina started the game with a 12-0 run and ended it with a 13-0 record, remaining undefeated and improving to 3-0 in ACC play for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
Kelly's career-high total included a career-best five three-pointers. She led four Tar Heels in double figures. Kennedy Todd-Williams scored 14 points, equal to her season high, and made a career-high five steals. Alyssa Ustby had a career-high six steals to go with her 10 points, and junior Eva Hodgson chipped in 10 points off the bench, including three buckets from long-range as the Tar Heels combined for 10 three-pointers.
As a team, the Tar Heels totaled 18 steals and forced Clemson into 25 turnovers, more than the Tigers' 24 field goals.
• In the most recent meeting in Clemson, on Feb. 18, 2021, UNC won 77-64. Graduate guard and future top-10 WNBA Draft pick Stephanie Watts led the way with 26 points and then-freshman Deja Kelly added 19. The Tar Heels started slowly but opened the second quarter with a 9-0 run to lead 36-24 at halftime. Carolina led by 23 with eight minutes to play before a late Clemson run closed the gap.

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Players Mentioned

Eva Hodgson

Deja Kelly

Kennedy Todd-Williams

Alyssa Ustby