WBB Pulls Off Homecourt Upset, Beating No. 4 Notre Dame, 60-50

Sunday, January 8

Chapel Hill

4 PM

North Carolina

10-5,1-3ACC

Notre Dame

12-2,3-1ACC

Notre Dame

North Carolina

Carolina beat No. 4 Notre Dame Sunday to earn the team's first ACC win of the season.

Photo by: Jerome M. Ibrahim

WBB Pulls Off Homecourt Upset, Beating No. 4 Notre Dame, 60-50

January 8, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Freshman Paulina Paris came off the bench to lead all scorers with 16 points Sunday as No. 22 North Carolina beat a top-five team for the second time this season, knocking off No. 4 Notre Dame 60-50 in a women's basketball battle at Carmichael Arena.

The Atlantic Coast Conference win was UNC's first of the season and ended a four-game losing streak. The Tar Heels are now 10-5 overall and 1-3 in ACC play heading into Thursday's game at Virginia.

Notre Dame, which was undefeated in ACC play, fell to 12-2 (3-1).

Along with Paris's 16, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter, Deja Kelly added 14 and Alyssa Ustby 12. Anya Poole led Carolina in rebounding with eight, one shy of her season high.

UNC's 60 points marked the team's second-lowest scoring total of the season (the lowest came on Thursday at Miami, when Carolina had 58 in a four-point loss), and UNC tied season lows for field goals and field goal attempts. But the Tar Heels scored all they needed to pick up a much-needed win, their first of 2023.

"They've leaned into losing some close games late but not losing faith," UNC coach Courtney Banghart said of her team, which doused her with water in a locker room celebration after the victory.

UNC scored the first seven points of the game and was up 13-7 after the first quarter, when Notre Dame shot 17.6 percent (3-17). The Tar Heels had five blocks in the first 10 minutes alone and finished the day with seven, including three each by Ustby and sophomore Destiny Adams. (Ustby tied her career high and Adams set a new one.)

After a low-scoring first half, the Fighting Irish led 25-22 at the break.

Carolina took its first lead of the second half on a layup by Paris with 2:35 to play in the third quarter. After UND tied it, Adams nailed a three – her first in ACC play in her only attempt of the day – to put UNC up by three, 36-33 with just under two minutes to play in the quarter. Ustby hit a three, assisted by Kelly, with 20 seconds in the period to give UNC a five-point lead, 39-34, heading into the fourth quarter.

The Tar Heels had won all eight games this season in which they were leading after three quarters, and Sunday they made it nine. UNC never trailed in the fourth, stretching the lead to a game-high 11 points with 21 seconds to play.

Carolina hadn't been to the free throw line a single time until the fourth quarter but went 11-14 in the period to pick up more than half the team's fourth-quarter points. Paris was the only Tar Heel with a made field goal in the final 10 minutes and she was 4-5 from the field and 2-2 from three-point range in that span, turning in another strong fourth-quarter performance after scoring nine late in UNC's loss at No. 6 Virginia Tech on Jan. 1.

"I came in and I was just trying to do what I could to help the team win," Paris said. "When I was open, I drove, I shot and I tried to find my teammates. I guess once the first shot went in, it was easy from there on."

Notre Dame was 2-22 (.091) from three-point range, the lowest percentage by a Tar Heel opponent this season. Olivia Miles led her team with 15 points and Lauren Ebo grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds as the visiting team won the rebounding battle 42-34.

The Fighting Irish entered the game averaging 84.1 points per game (ninth in the NCAA) and shooting .498 (fifth nationally and the best in the ACC).

UNC added a second top-five win to its resume, following a victory over then-No. 5 Iowa State in Portland in November. The Tar Heels have also beaten No. 18 Oregon and are 3-3 against ranked teams this season.