No. 24 WBB Faces No. 17 UConn Sunday

Sunday, December 10

Uncasville, Conn.

5 PM

North Carolina

UConn

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Reniya Kelly and the Tar Heels practice at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Saturday afternoon.

December 9, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Game Notes

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The North Carolina women's basketball team will face a ranked opponent for the third time in a five-game span when the No. 24 Tar Heels take on No. 17 UConn Sunday afternoon in the Basketball Hall of Fame Women's Showcase at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Tipoff is 5 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN. The Carolina-Connecticut matchup is the third of three games in the event, following No. 2 UCLA vs. No. 20 FSU at noon and No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 11 Utah at 2:30.

The Tar Heels come into the game at 6-3 following an 81-66 homecourt win over UNC Greensboro on Wednesday. UConn (5-3) also played at home on Wednesday, beating Ball State 90-63.

Setting the Scene
The Mohegan Sun Arena is part of the Mohegan Sun Resort, which in addition to the hotel and arena houses two casinos and numerous shops and restaurants. So instead of boarding a bus to go to practice on Saturday, the Tar Heels passed Michael Jordan's Steakhouse, went down an escalator and took a two minute walk through a casino to reach the arena entrance.

Off-Court Lessons
As part of the event's sponsorship by Invesco QQQ, the six teams participated in a financial education session on Saturday night at the arena. Among the panelists were WNBA champion Kelsey Plum and Connecticut Suns president Jennifer Rizzotti, a former UConn standout and member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

Heels vs. Huskies
The Tar Heels and Huskies will face off Sunday for the 13th time in program history and the first since the 2011-12 season. UConn leads the series 7-5 and has won the last five in a row.
• Just three of the matchups have happened at neutral sites, with UNC winning two of those:
11/21/04: UNC won 71-65 at the Caribbean Classic in Cancun, Mexico
12/2/95: UConn won 77-62 at the Carolinas Holiday Beach Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
3/26/94: On the way to the 1994 NCAA Championship, UNC won 81-69 in an Elite Eight matchup in Piscataway, N.J. The Huskies were the No. 1 seed in the East Region, with UNC seeded third.

Trending
• Wednesday's win over UNC Greensboro snapped a three-game skid for North Carolina. The three losses came by a combined 15 points and two of them were to teams now ranked in the top 13 nationally, No. 13 Kansas State and No. 1 South Carolina.
• Deja Kelly has hit for 20 points twice in the past three games – 24 against FGCU and 20 against South Carolina – and reached double figures in all nine games this season. She leads the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game.
• Three Tar Heels matched their career highs in assists against UNC Greensboro Wednesday, Deja Kelly with eight, Alyssa Ustby with six and Indya Nivar with five. The team finished with 20 assists, the second-highest total of the season.
• UNC had a different minutes leader in each of this season's first five games. Deja Kelly, who hadn't led the team in minutes in any of the first four, was the minutes leader in all three games in Florida and currently leads the team, playing 32.9 minutes per game. Nine Tar Heels are averaging 12 minutes or more.
• Through nine games, Alyssa Ustby leads the Tar Heels in rebounding and assists. She's tied for the team lead in steals and is second in scoring and blocks.
• After hitting all eight of her field goal attempts against FGCU, Maria Gakdeng made her first four shots against South Carolina before missing one to end her streak at 12 in a row. On the season, she's shooting .714 from the field, a percentage that would lead the ACC by a wide margin if she had the required five makes per game. (She has 4.44.) Over the last three games she's shooting .810 (17-21) from the field.
• Carolina ranks eighth nationally and leads the ACC in turnovers per game, averaging 11.4. The Tar Heels are tied for the conference lead in turnover margin at 7.56, which ranks 11th nationally.
• Six players on the roster have at least one 20-point game in a Carolina uniform. Deja Kelly has hit 20 points on 23 occasions, Alyssa Ustby five, and Lexi Donarski, Maria Gakdeng, Paulina Paris and Kayla McPherson once each.

Back again
This trip is a return appearance for one Tar Heel, Lexi Donarski, who played in this event with Iowa State before transferring to UNC over the summer. In a 74-62 win over Villanova on Dec. 18, 2022, she played all 40 minutes and finished with 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Next up
After the Hall of Fame Women's Showcase, UNC has the week off for final exams then returns to action on Friday for its last nonconference home game, a meeting with Western Carolina on Dec. 15. It's the annual Book Drive game and all fans who bring a children's book will get a free general admission ticket.

After that the Tar Heels close out the nonconference schedule by playing Oklahoma at the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte on Dec. 19. They're then idle until hosting Clemson on Dec. 31 to open ACC play.