WBB Hosts No. 25 Syracuse Thursday

Thursday, January 4

Chapel Hill

6 PM

North Carolina

Syracuse

Tickets

Indya Nivar
University of North Carolina Women's Basketball v Clemson
Carmichael Arena
Chapel Hill, NC
Sunday, December 31, 2023

The Tar Heels play their first game of 2024 on Thursday, hosting Syracuse for a 6 p.m. tipoff.

Photo by: AINSLEY E. FAUTH

January 4, 2024 | Women's Basketball

Game Notes Gameday Guide Get Tickets

CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina women's basketball team plays its first game of 2024 and its second Atlantic Coast Conference matchup of the season on Thursday night, hosting No. 25 Syracuse at Carmichael Arena. Tipoff is 6 p.m. and the game will air on ACCNX.

Tickets will be available at the door or can be purchased here. Students and staff get in free with a UNC One Card. The first 500 fans through the doors get free UNC basketball coffee mugs.

After opening ACC play with a pair of home games – UNC beat Clemson 82-76 at Carmichael on Dec. 31 – the Tar Heels play their next two on the road, traveling to No. 16 Notre Dame on Sunday and to No. 22 Florida State next Thursday.

Despite winning three games in a row, Carolina fell out of the national rankings this week for the first time all season, but the Tar Heels have the chance to earn their way back in with three ranked opponents in a row. Syracuse (11-1, 1-0 ACC) climbed into the rankings this week for the first time since January of 2021.

Heels vs. Orange
The Tar Heels and Orange are meeting for the 16th time in a rivalry that dates back to the 1998-99 season. Syracuse leads the series 9-6 after winning last year's meeting, two of the past three and nine of the past 12.
• Carolina has won the past two matchups in Chapel Hill, 79-43 in the 2021-22 season and 92-68 in the 2020-21 season, when the teams played home-and-home for the only time in the series.
• The home team has won each of the past four meetings. Prior to that back-and-forth, the Orange won five in a row.

Notable
• Following her 21-point, 11-rebound performance against Clemson on Sunday, Alyssa Ustby was honored as one of the USBWA's five National Players of the Week. Syracuse, Thursday's opponent, is the USBWA National Team of the Week.
• Five different Tar Heels – Lexi Donarski, Maria Gakdeng, Deja Kelly, Indya Nivar and Alyssa Ustby – have led the team in scoring at least once this season.
• UNC has had a 20-point scorer in six of the past seven games. Twice in that span two Tar Heels have reached 20 in the same game, and four different players (D. Kelly, Ustby, Donarski, Gakdeng) have topped 20 this season.

Trending
• The game against Clemson marked the first time 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 season at No. 25.
• UNC is 0-3 this season against ranked teams, with all three opponents currently ranked in the top 12: No. 1 South Carolina, No. 11 Kansas State and No. 12 UConn. The Tar Heels' next three opponents are ranked.
• Deja Kelly leads the ACC and ranks 13th in the nation in free throw attempts with 83. With 52 makes, she's fourth in the ACC and 48th nationally.
• Paulina Paris is perfect from the free throw line this season at 6 for 6.
• Maria Gakdeng is shooting .671 from the field, a percentage that would lead the ACC if she had the required five makes per game. (She has 4.1.)
• 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 two. Maria Gakdeng, Paulina Paris and Kayla McPherson have reached 20 points once each.
• Redshirt sophomore Teonni Key saw her first action of the season in the Western Carolina after missing the first 10 games of the year with a lower body injury. She made an immediate impact, with a career-best 10 rebounds, seven points, three blocks, two assists and a steal in 17:41 off the bench.

Next up
The Syracuse game is the second of two in a row at home for UNC. Up next the Tar Heels travel to Notre Dame on Sunday and then to Florida State next Thursday. UNC's next three games are against teams ranked in this week's AP top 25. UNC's next home game is on Jan. 14 vs. Virginia. It's Alumni Day and the Tar Heels will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 1994 NCAA Championship team.