UNC Visits No. 16 Notre Dame Sunday For ACC WBB Clash

huddle
University of North Carolina Women's Basketball v Syracuse
Carmichael Arena
Chapel Hill, NC
Thursday, January 4, 2024

The Tar Heels face off with No. 16 Notre Dame on Sunday in the second of three consecutive games against ranked teams.

Photo by: AINSLEY E. FAUTH

January 7, 2024 | Women's Basketball

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The UNC women's basketball team will play its first true road game of the season on Sunday, taking on No. 16 Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion. Tipoff is 5 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN2.

The Tar Heels (10-4) have played five of this season's 14 games away from home, but all have been at neutral sites, in Estero, Fla., Uncasville, Conn., and Charlotte, N.C. This is the furthest into the season that Carolina has played without a true road game in three decades, since the 1993-94 season.

Notre Dame is 10-2 overall and 1-1 in ACC play following a win on Thursday at Pitt. Carolina is coming off a homecourt win over No. 25 Syracuse, 75-51 on Thursday night.

Heels vs. Irish
The Tar Heels and Fighting Irish are meeting for the 15th time in a series that dates back to the 1999-2000 season. Notre Dame leads the series 10-4 overall and 8-3 since joining the ACC.
• UNC won last year's matchup, 60-50 on Jan. 8, 2023, in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels were ranked 22nd coming into the game and knocked off the No. 4 Fighting Irish to earn their second win of the season against a top-5 team. Then-freshman Paulina Paris came off the bench to lead Carolina with 16 points, 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Deja Kelly added 14 and Alyssa Ustby 12 as the Tar Heels broke a four-game losing streak.
• Notre Dame won the last matchup in South Bend, 70-65 on Jan. 16, 2022. The No. 21 Tar Heels were up by as many as 11 points in the second half before falling to the No. 20 Irish. Deja Kelly led UNC with 22 points and Alyssa Ustby finished with 15. Anya Poole led the rebounding effort with 12 as the Tar Heels outrebounded their hosts 45-37.
• All four of UNC's wins in the series have come in Chapel Hill (three) or at a neutral site (one, an NCAA Tournament second-round game in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 2007). Notre Dame has won all five previous meetings in South Bend.

Trending
• Following Thursday's win over No. 25 Syracuse, UNC is 1-3 this season against ranked teams. Carolina has losses to No. 1 South Carolina, No. 11 Kansas State and No. 12 UConn, with upcoming games at No. 16 Notre Dame and No. 22 Florida State.
• 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's the sixth game in a row that Carolina has shot 41 percent or better, dating back to a 31.3 percent shooting night in the loss to No. 1 South Carolina.
• 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.
• UNC is unranked this week for the first time all season. The Tar Heels were replaced in the poll by Thursday's opponent, Syracuse, which moved into the poll for the first time this year at No. 25. Carolina was No. 16 in the preseason and has been no higher than that during the season.
• 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.
• Freshman Reniya Kelly's last two games have been her best of the season. Against UConn on Dec. 10, she scored a season high six points in the first half, but didn't return after halftime after a hard fall late in the second quarter. She missed the next three games and returned against Syracuse, when she went 3-3 from the field for seven points, all in the fourth quarter. Prior to the UConn game, she hadn't scored more than four points in a game and had been scoreless in the previous three.

Stats Notes
• Deja Kelly leads the ACC and ranks 13th in the nation in free throw attempts with 85. With 53 makes, she's third in the ACC and 56th nationally.
• Lexi Donarski is second in the ACC and 33rd nationally with 37 three-pointers. She's hit 10 of those over the past two games. With an average of 5.0 threes per game in conference play, she ranks first in the league.
• Maria Gakdeng is shooting .681 from the field, a percentage that would lead the ACC if she had the required five makes per game. (She has 4.4.)
• Alyssa Ustby is 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 1,525 career points, 25th in program history. In 24th is Jessica Breland, who scored 1,535 between 2007 and 2011.
• Seniors Alyssa Ustby and Anya Poole are both close to playing in their 100th career games. Poole comes into Sunday's game having played in 97 (70 starts) and Ustby 98 (91 starts). Kelly made her 100th start against Clemson.
• Maria Gakdeng made her 150th career block, 19 of which have come at Carolina, in the Syracuse game.

Next up
After arriving back in Chapel Hill late Sunday night, the Tar Heels will spend Monday and Tuesday in town before departing on Wednesday – the first day of spring semester classes at UNC – to head for Tallahassee, Fla. UNC faces off with No. 22 Florida State on Thursday.