By R.L. Bynum

Coming off two impressive victories to finish the regular season, North Carolina jumped two spots to No. 16 in the latest AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll.

It’s the highest ranking for the Tar Heels (23–5, 13–5 ACC), the No. 4 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament in Greensboro, since they were No. 15 for the final four polls of the 2014–15 season. That team finished 26–9 and lost to South Carolina in the Greensboro Regional semifinal.

WUNC’s Mitchell Northam, the only North Carolina-based voter, and David Cloninger of The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., voted UNC the highest at No. 10. Robert Cessna of the Bryan-College Station Eagle in Texas voted Carolina the lowest at No. 21.

Chantel Jennings of The Athletic, who was the only voter to leave the Tar Heels off their ballot last week, voted UNC No. 15.

Carolina, which won at Virginia 68–57 and at home against Duke 74–46, has a double-bye in the ACC Tournament for the first time since the event expanded to 15 teams in 2014. UNC opens with a quarterfinal game at 11 a.m. Friday (regional sports networks). The Tar Heels will meet the winner of Thursday’s 11 a.m. second-round game.

That contest matches No. 5-seed Virginia Tech (21–8, 13–5) against the winner of Wednesday’s 1 p.m. first-round game between No. 12-seed Syracuse (11–17, 4–14) and No. 13-seed Clemson (9–20, 3–15).

The Hokies are up two spots to No. 21 after beating Miami 70–63 and losing 64–65 Sunday to regular-season champion N.C. State (26–3, 17–1), which remained No. 3. That loss to the Wolfpack meant UNC got the double-bye instead of Virginia Tech.

After losing in overtime to Florida State but beating Wake Forest, Georgia Tech fell from No. 22 to No. 25. Louisville (25–3, 16–2) stayed at No. 4.

Teams in the second 10 of last week’s poll to lose were Indiana (fell from No. 10 to No. 14 after losses to Iowa and Maryland), Arizona (fell from No. 12 to No. 14 after a loss to UCLA), Notre Dame (fell from No. 14 to No. 20 after an 86–64 home loss to Louisville), Florida (fell from No. 15 to No. 23 after losses to Vanderbilt and Missouri) and Tennessee (fell from No. 16 to No. 18 after a loss to LSU).

AP Top 25

Others receiving votes: Princeton 32, UCF 26, Villanova 19, Toledo 15, Oregon 13, Washington State 13, Dayton 12, Colorado 6, Kansas State 3, Ole Miss 2, Kansas 1, South Dakota State 1. (Point values in parentheses indicate the number of first-place votes.)

ACC Tournament bracket

Date	Score, record/ time, day, TV	Location	Opponent (current rank)
	November (6–0)
9	92–47 win, 1–0	Home	N.C. A&T
14	89–33 win, 2–0	Road	Charlotte
17	89–44 win, 3–0	Home	Appalachian State
21	79–46 win, 4–0	Road	TCU
26	72–59 win, 5–0	Bimini, Bahamas	X — VCU
27	58–37 win, 6–0	Bimini, Bahamas	X — Washington
	December (6–0, 2–0 ACC)
1	82–76 win, 7–0	Road	Y — Minnesota
5	93–47 win, 8–0	Home	James Madison
12	107–46 win, 9–0	Home	UNC Asheville
15	Game canceled	Home	Jacksonville
19	76–63 win, 10–0, 1–0 ACC	Road	Boston College
21	83–47 win, 11–0	Home	Alabama State
30	79–43 win, 12–0, 2–0	Home	Syracuse
	January (4–4, 4–4 ACC)
2	81–62 win, 13–0, 3–0 ACC	Home	Clemson
6	72–45 loss, 13–1, 3–1	Road	No. 3 N.C. State
9	71–46 win, 14–1, 4–1	Home	No. 21 Virginia Tech
16	70–64 loss, 14–2, 4–2	Road	No. 20 Notre Dame
20	61–52 win, 15–2, 5–2	Home	Virginia
23	55–38 loss, 15–3, 5–3	Road	No. 22 Georgia Tech
27	78–62 win, 16–3, 6–3	Road	Duke
30	66–58 loss, 16–4, 6–4	Home	No. 3 N.C. State
	February (7–1, 7–1 ACC)
3	78–59 win, 17–4, 7–4	Road	Wake Forest
6	85–38 win, 18–4, 8–4	Home	Miami
10	64–54 win, 19–4, 9–4	Home	Pittsburgh
13	66–61 loss, 19–5, 9–5	Road	No. 21 Virginia Tech
17	66–65 win, 20–5, 10–5	Home	No. 4 Louisville
20	64–49 win, 21–5, 11–5	Road	Florida State
24	68–57 win, 22–5, 12–5	Road	Virginia
27	74–46 win, 23–5, 14–5	Home	Duke
	March
	— ACC Tournament —
4	11 a.m. Friday, RSN	Greensboro	No. 21 Virginia Tech, Syracuse or Clemson
5	noon Saturday, ACCN	Greensboro	Semifinals (with win Friday)
6	noon Sunday, ESPN	Greensboro	Final (with wins Friday, Saturday)

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications