WBB Travels To Face No. 21 Florida State

Thursday, January 11

Tallahassee, Fla.

6 PM

North Carolina

Florida State

UNC will play back-to-back road games against ranked teams, with a matchup at No. 21 FSU on Thursday.

Photo by: DANI MEERSMAN

January 11, 2024 | Women's Basketball

Game Notes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The North Carolina women's basketball team takes on a ranked opponent for the third game in a row on Thursday evening, facing off with No. 21 Florida State at the Seminoles' Tucker Center.

Tipoff is 6 p.m. and the game will air on ACCNX.

The Tar Heels (11-4, 3-0 ACC) are coming off a pair of wins over ranked teams: 75-51 over No. 25 Syracuse at home on Jan. 4 and 61-57 over No. 16 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., on Sunday. After that victory, the program's first ever in South Bend, the Tar Heels were home for two days then hit the road again on Wednesday to travel south to Florida.

Florida State (12-3, 3-1 ACC) is coming off a 78-72 win at Clemson last Sunday. After the UNC game on Thursday, the Seminoles host No. 11 Virginia Tech on Sunday, giving FSU back-to-back visits from ranked teams for the first time since 2017.

Seminole sophomore Ta'Niya Latson leads her team with 21.1 points per game, which ranks second in the ACC to Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, meaning the get Tar Heels back-to-back matchups with the league's top two scorers. Latson comes into Thursday's matchup 25 points shy of reaching 1,000 for her career.

Heels vs. Seminoles
UNC and Florida State will meet Thursday for the 52nd time in a series that dates back to the 1981-82 season. Carolina leads the series 34-17 and won the last meeting in Tallahassee, but the Seminoles won last season in Chapel Hill. Overall, FSU has won seven of the past eight.
• Last season in Chapel Hill (Dec. 29, 2022), FSU won 78-71 in what was UNC's conference opener and bumped the Seminoles' ACC record to 2-0. Ta'Niya Latson led FSU with 21 points. Four Tar Heels reached double figures led by Deja Kelly's 20.
FSU's field goal attempts (72), free throws made (18), and total rebounds (51) in that game stood up as opponent highs throughout the 2022-23 season.
• UNC pulled out a 64-49 win in the teams' last meeting in Tallahassee, on Feb. 20, 2022 Deja Kelly led the way with 26 points and Alyssa Ustby registered her 12th double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 boards. It was Carolina's first road win against the Seminoles since 2014.

Next up
On Sunday, UNC hosts Virginia and will celebrate Alumni Day. In addition to welcoming back nearly 100 former players and their families, the Carolina program will honor the 1994 team on the 30th anniversary of the Tar Heels' NCAA Championship.

ACC Action Notables
Three games into the ACC schedule, Tar Heels have put up impressive numbers:
• With a 21 point/11 rebound double-double against Clemson, a 16 point/16 rebound/10 assist triple-double against Syracuse, and 11 rebounds at Notre Dame, Alyssa Ustby leads the league with 12.7 rebounds per game in ACC play. She's third in assists (5.0), fifth in field goal percentage (.581) and seventh in assist/turnover ratio (1.7).
• Lexi Donarski, who is averaging 16.7 points in ACC play, leads the league in three-point shooting with 13 makes through three games. She's also first in three-point percentage at 44.8 (13-29). Donarski's six makes from long range against Clemson are the single-game high so far in league play.
• Deja Kelly ranks ninth in the ACC in assist-turnover ratio at 1.6. Her 4.3 assists per game are eighth in the league. She matched her career high with eight assists against Clemson.

Trending
• Following Sunday's win at No. 16 Notre Dame, UNC is 2-3 this season against ranked teams. Carolina has losses to No. 1 South Carolina, No. 11 Kansas State and No. 12 UConn, and wins over No. 25 Syracuse and No. 16 Notre Dame.
• UNC's 24-point margin of victory against Syracuse was the team's largest against a ranked team since the Tar Heels beat then No. 18-Syracuse by 24 in the 2020-21 season. The last time UNC had a larger margin against a ranked team was a 34-point win over UCLA in 2014-15.
• UNC shot 50 percent from the field against the Orange, marking the fourth time this season the Tar Heels have been at 50.0 or better from the floor. It was the sixth game in a row that Carolina had shot 41 percent or better, dating back to a 31.3 percent shooting night in the loss to No. 1 South Carolina. Carolina shot 38.7 at Notre Dame.
• The game against Clemson on Dec. 31 marked the first time this season UNC has won with the opponent shooting over 40 percent. (The Tigers shot 44.1 percent from the field.) Clemson's 76 points marked the highest score by an opponent in a Tar Heel win this season.
• After one week out of the rankings, UNC climbed back in this week at No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 22 in the coaches' poll. The Tar Heels were the only team in the country to beat two ranked teams during the previous week.
• Six players on the roster have at least one 20-point game in a Carolina uniform. Deja Kelly has hit 20 points on 24 occasions, Alyssa Ustby seven, and Lexi Donarski and Maria Gakdeng two each. Paulina Paris and Kayla McPherson have reached 20 points once each, both during the 2022-23 season.
• UNC's 24 points off the bench against Notre Dame marked the team's highest in ACC play, highest against a ranked team, and third highest of the season. The Tar Heel bench has outscored the opposing bench just five times this season, with two coming in the past two games.
• For just the second time this season (Vermont was the other), UNC trailed heading into the fourth quarter and came back to win.
• UNC outrebounded Notre Dame 47-41 to win the rebounding battle for the first time in ACC play.

Stats Notes
• Deja Kelly leads the ACC and ranks 17th in the nation in free throw attempts with 89.
• Lexi Donarski is second in the ACC and 30th nationally with 40 three-pointers. She's hit 13 of those over the past three games. With an average of 4.3 threes per game in conference play, she ranks first in the league.
• Maria Gakdeng is shooting .677 from the field, a percentage that would lead the ACC if she had the required five makes per game. (She has 4.3.)
• Against No. 25 Syracuse, Alyssa Ustby became the first player in Division I history to register 15 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists against an AP-ranked opponent. (ESPN Stats and Info)

Milestone Watch
• Deja Kelly passed the 1,500 career points mark in the Dec. 19 win over Oklahoma on Dec. 19. She's the 25th Tar Heel to reach that milestone and currently has 1,531 career points, 25th in program history. In 24th is Jessica Breland, who scored 1,535 between 2007 and 2011.
• Lexi Donarski is closing in on 1,500. She heads into Thursday's game at FSU with 1,423 career points, 172 of those at Carolina.
• Deja Kelly is three assists from hitting 300 for her career.
• Paulina Paris's next three-pointer will be the 50th of her career.
• Seniors Alyssa Ustby and Anya Poole are both close to playing in their 100th career games. Poole comes into Thursday's game having played in 98 (68 starts) and Ustby 99 (92 starts). Kelly made her 100th start against Clemson.