Tar Heels Earn WBB WIn Over No. 13 Louisville

Sunday, January 21

Chapel Hill

2 PM

North Carolina

14-5,6-1ACC

Louisville

16-3,5-1ACC

Louisville

North Carolina

UNC handed No,. 13 Louisville its first ACC loss of the season.

Photo by: AINSLEY E. FAUTH

January 21, 2024 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – In front of a near-capacity crowd, the No. 23 North Carolina women's basketball team handed No. 13 Louisville its first Atlantic Coast Conference loss of the season, winning 79-68 on Sunday afternoon at Carmichael Arena.

It marked the Tar Heels' third victory over a ranked team since the start of 2024 and gave the team its best ACC start – 6-1 – since 2013.

⚠️𝗖𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡⚠️ 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘩 𝘻𝘰𝘯𝘦 pic.twitter.com/Dc2EaKGCAT
— Carolina Women's Basketball (@uncwbb) January 21, 2024

UNC (14-5 overall) is back in action on Thursday with another home game, hosting Miami for an 8 p.m. tipoff.

In Carolina's return to Carmichael after a win at Georgia Tech on Thursday, senior Deja Kelly led the Tar Heel scoring with 23 points for her fourth consecutive game of 23 or more. She hit a career-high 14 free throws in 16 attempts and also handed out a game-high six assists. Graduate student Lexi Donarski scored UNC's first 10 points of the game – with five minutes to play in the first quarter it was Donarski 10, Louisville 9 – and finished with 13, including 3-7 shooting from three-point range.

Senior Alyssa Ustby scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to register her ninth double-double of the season and her fourth in seven ACC games. She also had a career-high seven blocks, more than double her previous best of three, to lead the Tar Heels to a season-best 11 as a team. Sophomore Indya Nivar came off the bench for 10 points.

The Tar Heels outrebounded Louisville 42-28, winning the battle of the boards for the fifth game in a row. After Ustby's 12, senior Anya Poole had eight, her high in ACC play, and junior Maria Gakdeng grabbed seven.

Carolina led by nine after the first quarter and shot 57.6 percent before halftime, its best in an ACC half this year, but still found itself tied up at the half, 36-36. The home team used an 11-0 run and outscored Louisville 24-13 in the third quarter to pull away. UNC shot 50.0 percent (7-14) and Kelly went 9-10 from the foul line in the period, and the Tar Heels led 60-49 heading into the fourth.

They were up by 12, 63-51, after a three by Reniya Kelly – assisted by Deja Kelly – with 7:44 to play, but the Cardinals continued to threaten. Louisville pulled within five, 66-61, on a Nyla Harris jumper with 3:41 remaining, but Nivar answered with a make on her only three-point attempt of the day to make the margin eight. Louisville cut it to six on three more occasions but never got closer.

Harris finished with 16 points for the Cardinals (16-3, 5-1). Oliva Cochran and Jayda Curry added 14 each.

The win is UNC's second in a row over Louisville in Chapel Hill, following a 66-65 victory in 2022 when the Cardinals were ranked No. 3.

The crowd was announced at 6,073, including more than 1,000 youngsters and their caregivers who participated in UNC's National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration prior to the game, learning skills from members of UNC's 15 varsity women's teams.