Courtney Banghart brings her 8-5, 3-5 North Carolina Tar Heels into the KFC YUM! Center tonight for an 8 p.m. contest against the #1 Louisville Cardinals WBB squad. Repeat -- tonight's contest is an 8 p.m. game -- note the time -- and will be available on the ACC Network, as well as on Cards Radio 790 AM WKRD AM.
UNC won their last contest, downing Notre Dame 78-73 in Chapel Hill on Sunday. It took a strong fourth-quarter to get past the Irish, UNC trailed 58-54 going into the final quarter. Other wins this year for the Tar Heels have come over Radford, UNC Greensboro, High Point, South Carolina State and Charlotte in non-conference action. All these wins came in Chapel Hill. In the ACC, the TarHeels have fallen to Miami twice, home and away -- at Wake Forest, at Syracuse and hosting Virginia Tech. Wins in conference play have come against Syracuse and Wake Forest, both in Carmichael Arena and the Notre Dame game.
North Carolina is third in the ACC with 77.9 points per game and they are allowing 63.9 points per game, good for fifth in the conference. The Tar Heels +14.0-point margin ranks fourth in the ACC.
6'5" center Janelle Bailey leads the team in points and rebounds per game, posting a 14.7 and 8.2 average. Her 78 made field goals on .517 percent shooting for the season rank sixth and seventh respectively in the ACC. The Tar Heels rank third in offensive rebounds with 15.8 per game, second in rebounding margin at 10.7, and third in defensive rebounds with 31.3 per game. North Carolina trails only Louisville in assist-to-turnover ratio at +1.23.
Stephanie Watts is top three in the conference in the assist-to-turnover category with a +2.1 differential. Watts exploded against Notre Dame with 25 points, 12 rebounds and four threes. Petra Holesinska totaled 24 points against the Irish and nailed six threes in the win.
The Cards will need to do several things to get a win tonight. First is probably slowing down Bailey and her inside game and rebounding skills. Watts and Holesinska can't be allowed open three-point looks, they've combined for 46 made threes this season. Freshmen Deja Kelly (11.1 ppg) and Alyssa Ustby (10.1 ppg) have been pleasant surprises as well for second-year head coach Banghart. Kelly is also an excellent defender and has 20 steals on the season. Jeff Walz has hinted that we may see a return of Kianna Smith to the starting lineup tonight and we might also see extended time with Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran on the court aat the same time to try and keep Bailey in check and bolster rebounding.
It's interesting to note that both Holesinska and Watts are graduate students -- Holesinska was Illinois leading scorer in 2019-20 and Watts began her career at UNC, went to Southern Cal for a graduate year where she only played four games before an injury sidelined her, and then transferred back to UNC.
UNC has had trouble in winning games on the road, with a 0-3 record away from Chapel Hill. They can "go big" -- with five players over 6'2" on the roster, but Banghart has been going with a four-guard (Kelly, Holesinska, Watts and Ustby) plus Bailey lineup of late.
Banghart and Walz coached together on the 2017 USA U 23 National Team, Banghart was at Princeton at the time and Michelle Clark-Heard was also a coach on that team.
Hopefully, tonight's game will go off as planned. The two schools have had multiple postponements in trying to play this contest -- due to COVID protocols and travels issues. The Cards lead the overall series 7-3 and are on a seven-game win streak over UNC.
--sonja--
UNC won their last contest, downing Notre Dame 78-73 in Chapel Hill on Sunday. It took a strong fourth-quarter to get past the Irish, UNC trailed 58-54 going into the final quarter. Other wins this year for the Tar Heels have come over Radford, UNC Greensboro, High Point, South Carolina State and Charlotte in non-conference action. All these wins came in Chapel Hill. In the ACC, the TarHeels have fallen to Miami twice, home and away -- at Wake Forest, at Syracuse and hosting Virginia Tech. Wins in conference play have come against Syracuse and Wake Forest, both in Carmichael Arena and the Notre Dame game.
North Carolina is third in the ACC with 77.9 points per game and they are allowing 63.9 points per game, good for fifth in the conference. The Tar Heels +14.0-point margin ranks fourth in the ACC.
6'5" center Janelle Bailey leads the team in points and rebounds per game, posting a 14.7 and 8.2 average. Her 78 made field goals on .517 percent shooting for the season rank sixth and seventh respectively in the ACC. The Tar Heels rank third in offensive rebounds with 15.8 per game, second in rebounding margin at 10.7, and third in defensive rebounds with 31.3 per game. North Carolina trails only Louisville in assist-to-turnover ratio at +1.23.
Stephanie Watts is top three in the conference in the assist-to-turnover category with a +2.1 differential. Watts exploded against Notre Dame with 25 points, 12 rebounds and four threes. Petra Holesinska totaled 24 points against the Irish and nailed six threes in the win.
The Cards will need to do several things to get a win tonight. First is probably slowing down Bailey and her inside game and rebounding skills. Watts and Holesinska can't be allowed open three-point looks, they've combined for 46 made threes this season. Freshmen Deja Kelly (11.1 ppg) and Alyssa Ustby (10.1 ppg) have been pleasant surprises as well for second-year head coach Banghart. Kelly is also an excellent defender and has 20 steals on the season. Jeff Walz has hinted that we may see a return of Kianna Smith to the starting lineup tonight and we might also see extended time with Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran on the court aat the same time to try and keep Bailey in check and bolster rebounding.
It's interesting to note that both Holesinska and Watts are graduate students -- Holesinska was Illinois leading scorer in 2019-20 and Watts began her career at UNC, went to Southern Cal for a graduate year where she only played four games before an injury sidelined her, and then transferred back to UNC.
UNC has had trouble in winning games on the road, with a 0-3 record away from Chapel Hill. They can "go big" -- with five players over 6'2" on the roster, but Banghart has been going with a four-guard (Kelly, Holesinska, Watts and Ustby) plus Bailey lineup of late.
Banghart and Walz coached together on the 2017 USA U 23 National Team, Banghart was at Princeton at the time and Michelle Clark-Heard was also a coach on that team.
Hopefully, tonight's game will go off as planned. The two schools have had multiple postponements in trying to play this contest -- due to COVID protocols and travels issues. The Cards lead the overall series 7-3 and are on a seven-game win streak over UNC.
--sonja--
