University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Charleston Southern
Women's Basketball Opens Season With Field Trip Day Matinee Against Charleston Southern
November 3, 2024 | Women's Basketball
NO. 15/16 NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS (0-0, 0-0 ACC)
Head Coach: Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth, 2000)
Record at North Carolina: 96-56 (6th season)
Career Record: 350-159 (18th season)
CHARLESTON SOUTHERN BUCCANEERS (0-0, 0-0 Big South)
Head Coach: Clarisse White (Villanova, 2007)
Record at Charleston Southern: 18-71 (4th season)
Career Record: 33-110 (6th season)
• North Carolina kicks off the 2024-25 season from the comfort of home, hosting Charleston Southern in its opener for its annual field trip day.
• Head coach Courtney Banghart returns nine from last year's NCAA Tournament squad, including a majority of her starting core in Lexi Donarski, Maria Gakdeng and Alyssa Ustby.
• The Tar Heels open the season ranked for the third season in-a-row, coming in at No. 15 in the AP Poll and No. 16 in the USA TODAY/WBCA Coaches Poll.
• The duo of Maria Gakdeng and Alyssa Ustby have garnered national acclaim with both being named to Hoophall Preseason Position Watchlist. Ustby also earned Preseason All- ACC honors and a spot on the Naismith Trophy Watchlist.
SCOUTING CHARLESTON SOUTHERN
CSU opens the 2024-25 season in year four under head coach Clarisse White and coming off of an 11-19 campaign.
Following an 8-8 record in Big South action, Charleston Southern returns its second leading scorer in Catherine Alben who posted 13.9 points per game last season. As a team, the Buccaneers led the conference last season in rebounding for an average of 66 boards per game.
SERIES HISTORY
UNC owns the all-time advantage against Charleston Southern, winning all 10 previous match-ups that date back to 1989.
Monday will be the 10th meeting in Chapel Hill and the first since 2019.
THE TAR HEELS IN SEASON OPENERS
In overall program history, UNC is 43-7 in its opening game of the season and 5-0 in openers under Courtney Banghart.
The Tar Heels have won its last six season openers and look to make it seven in-a-row on Monday.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Tar Heels begin the season at home for the fifth straight season and hope to extend its streak in home openers to seven straight wins.
Overall, the Tar Heels are 46-4 in their first home game of the season and 5-0 under Banghart.
NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER
The month of November has proven to be successful for the Tar Heels while under Banghart.
Entering year six in Chapel Hill, UNC is 26-3 during the first month of the season under her tenure.
NEW CHAPTER STARTS...NOW
The dawn of a new season always brings excitement as to what's next, as North Carolina preps to begin a new campaign with high anticipation surrounding the program.
Excitement is abundant among Banghart and Co., in bringing in a roster loaded with returning experience.
Utilizing the transfer portal to bring in two guards, and signing three freshmen, this team looks to go deep in its rotation to make another NCAA Tournament run.
WHAT'S BACK?
Nine from last year's NCAA Tournament team return to Chapel Hill, including three key starters in Lexi Donarksi, Maria Gakdeng and Alyssa Ustby.
The trio accounted for 47.4% of UNC's scoring in 2023-24, and prepare to make even more of an impact as Donarski and Gakdeng enter their second season in a Carolina uniform.
Indya Nivar returns after appearing in all 33 games last season with starting experience and Reniya Kelly boasts 11 starts and 21 appearances prior to missing the remainder of last season due to injury.
STAT BREAKDOWN
Points returning: 63.1%
Three's returning: 63.9%
Rebounds returning: 62.1%
Assists returning: 63.7%
Steals returning: 70.1%
Blocks returning: 72.5%
Ustby is back as the Tar Heels' leader in rebounds, assists and steals from last season.
Around the rim, Gakdeng looks to expand her defensive range as the team's leading shot blocker with 51 rejections last year.
With 270 made career-three's, Donarski drained 74 triples last season for 33.9% from beyond the arc to lead the Tar Heels.
NOT DONE YET
Choosing to utilize their fifth and final season of collegiate eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Donarski and
Donarksi has already eclipsed the 1,500 career-point mark, while Ustby remains just shy. Ustby is also less than 50 rebounds away from surpassing the 1,000 career mark.
THE FAB FRESHMEN
Scouring the United States for some of the nation's top talent, Banghart and Co. have brought in three freshman that have the chance to make an immediate impact for Carolina.
Lanie Grant, Blanca Thomas and Jordan Zubich comprise the freshman class with the trio bringing in a plethora of high school and club accolades.
Grant chose to reclassify to the class of 2024 and forgo her final season of high school to join the Tar Heels early. An active member of USA Basketball, Grant was a member of the 2023 U.S. U16 Team that won gold at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, while averaging 11.2 points throughout the tournament.
A Carolina native, Thomas hopes to provide assistance on the interior and a strong defensive presence. The 2023 Defensive Player of the Year by the Charlotte Observer, Thomas led Charlotte Catholic to back-to-back final four appearances in the state tournament during her sophomore and junior seasons.
Joining Ustby as the second Minnesota native on the team, Zubich is coming off of an electric prep career where she scored over 3,000 career points. A graduate of Mountain Iron-Buhl High School, Zubich was touted as the No. 69 player in the Class of 2024 by ESPN's HoopGurlz.
A FRESH START
Finding a new home in Chapel Hill, transfers Trayanna Crisp and Grace Townsend immediately add a boost at the point guard position in two experienced floor generals.
Following a breakout sophomore season at Arizona State, Crisp chose to leave her native Arizona to don a Carolina uniform. Appearing in 59 games with 35 starts over two seasons with the Sun Devils, Crisp increased her scoring by over 50% as a sophomore for an average of 12.1 points per game.
Crisp notched a career-high against Washington last year with a total of 23 points against the Huskies, adding to her total of 29 games scoring in double-figures.
Also choosing to leave her home state, Townsend joins UNC following a heralded four-year career at Richmond. As a Spider, Townsend became the first men's or women's basketball player in school history to reach 1,000 career points, 500 assists and 500 rebounds.
The 2024 A-10 All-Conference First Team honoree ended her career in Richmond ranked 14th overall in scoring for the program with 1,244 points.
KEEPING IT 100
With 96 wins at the helm of the Tar Heels, Courtney Banghart is four wins away from reaching the 100 mark.
Banghart recently reached the 350 career-win mark in UNC's NCAA Tournament win against Michigan State last season.
LETTING LYS SHINE
A consistent presence for the Tar Heels the past four seasons, Alyssa Ustby's dedication to the game and the program can be seen in her performance on the court as she averaged a double-double in ACC action last season with 12.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
Heading into her final season, Ustby's skills are well known throughout women's basketball as she has added to her list of honors this preseason.
After being named Second-team All- ACC last year, Ustby earned Preseason All-ACC honors to kick off the 2024-25 campaign.
For the fourth consecutive season, Ustby was tabbed to the Cheryl Miller Award Preseason Watchlist as one of the country's top small forwards. She was also named to the Naismith Award Preseason Watchlist as one of the top players in women's basketball.
OH MY MARIA!
Posting a stellar first season as a Tar Heel, Maria Gakdeng averaged 6.4 points per game while shooting 62.6% from the field in 2023-24.
The senior's efforts were once again recognized as one of the best centers in the nation, as Gakdeng was named to the Lisa Leslie Award Watch List for the second season in-a-row.
Gakdeng also proves to be a fearless rim protector, on the verge of reaching the 200 career block mark at 182.
PRESSURE IS A PRIVILEGE
At Carolina, winning is a tradition and the pressure to be one of the best remains high. The Tar Heels open the season selected to finish sixth overall in the Atlantic Coast Conference after finishing in the top half of the conference the past four seasons.
Starting the season ranked for the third consecutive year. Coming in at No. 15 in the AP Poll and No. 16 in the USA Today/ WBCA Coaches Poll, the Tar Heels have the chance to prove their talent with early challenges against No. 2 UConn and multiple heavyweight programs at the Battle4Atlantis.
NON-CON TESTS AWAIT
Playing in one of the deepest conferences in the nation as a member of the ACC, taking on challenges in the non-conference slate is crucial towards the build for March.
UNC begins these tests early, heading to Greensboro to host No. 2 UConn in a neutral site game on Nov. 15. The Tar Heels face off against the perrenial power in a return game after traveling to Connecticut last year and falling to the Huskies, 76-64.
Traveling to the Bahamas for the 2024 Battle4Atlantis, the Tar Heels have the chance to face off against multiple NCAA Tournament teams including Baylor, Columbia, Indiana and Texas A&M. UNC heads to Paradise Island to play three games in three days from Nov. 23 through 25.
Two SEC teams await on North Carolina's schedule, hosting No. 22 Kentucky in Chapel Hill for the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 5. The Tar Heels then travel to Charlotte to go up against Florida on Dec. 18 in the 2024 Jumpman Classic.
MILESTONE TRACKER
LEXI DONARSKI
• 5 assists away from 250 career.
• 3 points away from 1,600 career.
• 30 made three's away from 300 career.
• 7 rebounds away from 400.
MARIA GAKDENG
• One game away from 100th career appearance.
• 30 points away from 1,000 career.
• 18 blocks away from 200 career.
• 14 assists away from 100 career.
INDYA NIVAR
• 19 assists from 200 career.
GRACE TOWNSEND
• 256 points away from 1,500 career.
• 41 assists away from 600 career.
ALYSSA USTBY
• 68 points from 1,500 career.
• 4 rebounds from cracking the top-10 in UNC history.
• 43 rebounds away from 1,000 career.
• 7 blocks from cracking the top-10 in UNC history.
NEW FACES TO THE BENCH
Banghart strengthened her staff this off-season in adding assistant coaches Katherine Bixby and Cory McNeill to the Tar Heel staff.
Bixby brings more than 15 years of coaching experience to Chapel Hill and boasts head coaching experience with stops at Johns Hopkins and Dickinson College.
McNeill spent the past five seasons at East Carolina where he served as an associate head coach. His coaching journey also includes stops at Hartford, Virginia, Georgetown and Coppin State.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The Tar Heels remain home, hosting UNCW on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. ET.
The contest against the Seahawks can be seen on ACCNX.
UNC then hits the road for a swing in Greensboro, visiting NC A&T on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. and then taking on No. 2 UConn from First Horizion Coliseum on Nov. 15 at 6 p.m on ESPN2.
