By R.L. Bynum

Seemingly with a flip of the switch, No. 22 North Carolina went from struggling to score at Virginia to surging to a victory.

After the Tar Heels produced more turnovers (14) than field goals (13) through three quarters, they went turnover-free and shot 52.9% in the final quarter. They flipped the momentum thanks to defensive pressure that ignited their transition game and Kennedy Todd-Williams’ aggressive play.

The junior wing fueled an incredible 22–2 game-ending run with 11 of her career-high 21 points as UNC rallied from an 11-point deficit for a 70–59 victory Thursday at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Va.

“I knew we had to pull out this win,” said Todd-Williams, who got those 11 fourth-quarter points in only 7 minutes, 10 seconds. “We’re hungry for a win. And I think that, together, we wanted to go on a run. And I think we started to do that; shots are falling for us and myself, too. And we locked down in the fourth quarter. Really proud of this group and how we came together in that fourth quarter because we were down, and we were able to stick together and pull out the win.”

Carolina takes a two-game win streak into Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. home game against No. 11 N.C. State.

It was the sixth consecutive win over Virginia for UNC (11–5, 2–3 ACC), but it looked very much in doubt until the Cavaliers (13–4, 2–4) had eight turnovers, three field goals and a scoring drought of more than four minutes in the final period.

It was yet another remarkable comeback for the Tar Heels, who rallied from significant first-half deficits in Portland to earn wins over ranked teams — then-No. 5 Iowa State and then-No. 18 Oregon — to win the Phil Knight Invitational.

Carolina was coming off a huge win Sunday over then-No. 4 Notre Dame, but the momentum from that victory didn’t seem to kick in until late Thursday. And it wouldn’t have happened without Todd-Williams.

“Kennedy is the dog, and we’re telling her to just to bring that up more and kind of share that with the whole team,” Deja Kelly, who scored 13 of her 21 points in the first half, said of Todd-Williams. “She’s really active on the defensive end, and she’s rebounding for us. She pushes it in transition, which I think is her best offense. I think she really brought that out in the fourth quarter, especially, when we needed it the most.”

What made the win more improbable is that Todd-Williams and Alyssa Ustby played the entire fourth quarter with three fouls, and both still were on top of their games. Ustby finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, four steals and — for the second consecutive game — a career-high three blocks.

UNC coach Courtney Banghart stopped her bench from telling Todd-Williams she had three fouls, and she didn’t want those two — or center Anya Poole — to think about being in foul trouble.

“It’s better that she doesn’t even know that because sometimes, if you’re trying to play safe, what it means is you’re late,” Banghart said. “You can’t go down safe; you’ve got to go down swinging. We didn’t want them to know much about their foul trouble and wanted them to stay active and focus on that instead.”

Banghart couldn’t remember being part of a game-ending run as dominant as her team unleashed in the final 6:46.

“Too bad that we didn’t play the fourth quarter four times,” said Banghart, noting that Virginia played great in the first three quarters while her team couldn’t make shots. “Throw in the mental errors, and it was just kind of a slog.”

Carolina turned the game around by shifting to a smaller lineup, with Destiny Adams in the post for the final 6:28 and freshman Paulina Paris playing the entire quarter. After Virginia dominated the boards 38–25 in the first three quarters, aggressive play allowed UNC to earn a 12–7 edge in the final quarter.

Paris, who had seven points and five assists, only made one field goal, but it was huge. After Virginia’s only basket of the last 6:46 — a Camryn Taylor inside bucket — cut UNC’s lead to two, Carolina had gone two possessions without points before a Paris 3-pointer from a few feet behind the arc with 1:52 remaining.

A 3-pointer from Virginia’s Carole Miller with 1:04 left in the third quarter gave the Cavaliers an 11-point lead and seemingly solid control of the game.

“We had a good little run there toward the end of the third, and that allowed us to kind of get into our pressure defense in the fourth, and that changed, obviously, the tempo of the game,” Banghart said. “Clearly, the full-court pressure was an advantage to us and a disadvantage to them. So it was kind of a perfect storm there.”

Trailing by seven after three quarters, Banghart’s message to her team was an honest assessment of how the game had gone to that point.

“It was more about, ‘hey, we haven’t played well at all, and we’re right there, so we’ve got 10 minutes,’ ” Banghart told her team. ” ‘There’s an element of you’ve got to make a play. We need some guys to go out there and make a play.’ “

Banghart said that her team’s confidence kept growing as they kept getting one stop after the other, and Todd-Williams’ scoring surge put the Tar Heels on a roll.

“She’s got so many different layers to her game,” Banghart said. “She’s still sort of figuring out where her attack spots are, so we’re continuing … really encouraging her to be as aggressive as she can be. She’s great at the top of the press, and I thought that let her get some run-outs as well. It’s an issue of her sometimes trying to worry about what the team needs as opposed to just going and getting one.”

The game started oddly when, in the first 26 seconds, Virginia’s Sam Brunelle drew an intentional foul for wrapping her arms around Poole on a transition play. It was quickly 2–0 UNC after a pair of Todd-Williams free throws.

Virginia’s Taylor Valladay scored 10 first-quarter points during an 11–2 run to give the Cavaliers a 12–6 lead with 3:12 left. Kelly scored all six points in a 6–3 run to finish the period to trim UNC’s deficit to 15–12 after one period.

A Kelly jumper and 3-pointer capped a 9–3 UNC run to seize a 21–20 lead with 5:03 left in the first half. After a Brunelle 3-pointer put the Cavs up by three, UNC went on a 7–2 run to take a 28–26 lead on a Todd-Williams 3-pointer with 1:14 left.

Carolina led 30–27 at halftime after Kelly scored the last of her 13 first-half points on two free throws. Ustby drew her third foul with 1:01 left in the first half.

Virginia charged to a seven-point lead with a 12–2 run to start the second half. UNC cut the lead to four on an Ustby jumper, but the Cavaliers went up by 11 with a 7–0 run. Virginia took a 51–42 lead into the final quarter by outscoring UNC 24–12 in the third quarter.

Todd-Williams scored seven of 13 consecutive UNC points, ending with her transition layup off of a long Ustby pass and two Kelly free throws, to give UNC a 61–57 lead. Paris’ 3-pointer and Todd-Williams’ layup shoved the lead to seven with 1:40 left.

Valladay led Virginia with 16 points and Brunelle scored 15 points on five 3-pointers.

NOTES — Carolina returns home for the next three games, starting at 3:30 p.m. Sunday (ESPN) against No. 11 N.C. State, which has lost three of its last five games. Florida State blew out the three-time reigning ACC champion Wolfpack (13–4, 3–3) 91–72 Thursday in Tallahassee, Fla. … Thursday’s game was Virginia’s first without 5–9 junior UConn transfer wing Mir McLean, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Sunday’s loss at N.C. State. She was second on the team in scoring at 12.2 points per game and led the team with 9.6 rebounds per game. … Carolina, which swept both games with the Cavaliers the last two seasons, pushed its lead in the series to 57–34. … John Paul Jones Arena was the site of Banghart’s first ACC road win, 65–47, on Jan. 2, 2020.

No. 22 UNC 70, Virginia 59

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 16 Louisville	2–0	11–3	14
N.C. State	2–0	8–4	31
Syracuse	1–0	10–1	40
Stanford	1–0	9–2	32
No. 20 Notre Dame	1–0	8–2	19
Virginia	1–0	8–3	29
Duke	1–0	5–6	38
Wake Forest	1–1	10–3	127
Virginia Tech	1–1	9–3	63
Clemson	1–1	8–4	49
Miami	1–1	7–4	48
No. 18 North Carolina	0–1	10–3	15
California	0–1	8–4	70
Pittsburgh	0–1	7–6	250
SMU	0–1	5–6	154
Boston College	0–1	4–9	207
Florida State	0–2	4–9	112
Georgia Tech	0–2	4–9	125

* — Through Wednesday games
Wednesday’s games
No. 18 North Carolina 84, UNCW 34
Clemson 78, Charleston Southern 52
No. 16 Louisville 76, Eastern Kentucky 51
Thursday’s results
Virginia Tech 79, Florida State 54
Miami 64, Wake Forest 61
Pittsburgh 98, Saint Francis 46
N.C. State 87, Georgia Tech 58
Duke 97, South Dakota State 54
Friday’s games
Mercyhurst at Syracuse, 10:30 a.m, ACCN Extra
Northeastern at Boston College, noon, ACCN Extra
SMU at Sam Houston, 6 p.m., ESPN+
No. 22 Washington at Stanford, 10 p.m., ACCN Extra
Saturday’s games
No. 16 Louisville at No. 17 Tennessee, 11 a.m., Fox
Winthrop at Virginia, noon, ACCN Extra
South Carolina State at Florida State, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Duke at Belmont, 3 p.m., ESPN+
Sunday’s games
Charleston Southern at No. 18 North Carolina, noon, ACC Network
Radford at Virginia Tech, noon, ACCN Extra
Kennesaw State at Miami, noon, ACCN Extra
N.C. State at Davidson, noon, CBS Sports Network
Pittsburgh at Duquesne, 1 p.m., ESPN+
North Florida at Clemson, 2 p.m., ACCN Extra
Bellarmine at No. 20 Notre Dame, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Southern at SMU, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Oregon vs. Stanford in San Francisco, 6 p.m., ESPN
No. 19 USC vs. California in San Francisco, 8:30, ESPN

Date	Month/day	Time/score	Opponent/event (current ranking)	Location	Record
	November
9	Wednesday	W, 91–59	Jackson State	Home	1–0
12	Saturday	W, 75–48	TCU	Home	2–0
16	Wednesday	W, 93–25	South Carolina State	Home	3–0
20	Sunday	W, 76–65	James Madison	Harrisonburg, Va.	4–0
			*Phil Knight Invitational*
24	Thursday	W, 85–79	Oregon	Portland	5–0
27	Sunday	W, 73–64	No. 17 Iowa State	Portland	6–0
	December		*ACC/Big Ten Challenge*
1	Thursday	L, 87–63	No. 2 Indiana	Bloomington, Ind.	6–1
7	Wednesday	W, 64–42	UNCW	Home	7–1
11	Sunday	W, 99–67	Wofford	Home	8–1
16	Friday	W, 89–47	USC Upstate	Home	9–1
			*Jumpman Invitational*
20	Tuesday	L, 76–68	No. 18 Michigan	Charlotte	9–2
			ACC season begins
29	Thursday	L, 78–71	Florida State	Home	9–3, 0–1 ACC
	January
1	Sunday	L, 68–65	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Blacksburg, Va.	9–4, 0–2 ACC
5	Thursday	L, 62–58	Miami	Coral Gables, Fla.	9–5, 0–3 ACC
8	Sunday	W, 60–50	No. 10 Notre Dame	Home	10–5, 1–3 ACC
12	Thursday	W, 70–59	Virginia	Charlottesville, Va.	11–5, 2–3 ACC
15	Sunday	W, 56–47	N.C. State	Home	12–5, 3–3 ACC
19	Thursday	W, 61–56	No. 13 Duke	Home	13–5, 4–3 ACC
22	Sunday	W, 70–57	Georgia Tech	Home	14–5, 5–3 ACC
26	Thursday	W, 72–57	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh	15–5, 6–3 ACC
29	Sunday	W, 69–58	Clemson	Clemson	16–5, 7–3 ACC
	February
2	Thursday	W, 73–62	Virginia	Home	17–5, 8–3 ACC
5	Sunday	L, 62–55	Louisville	Louisville	17–6, 8–4 ACC
9	Thursday	L, 75–67	Syracuse	Syracuse	17–7, 8–5 ACC
12	Sunday	W, 73–55	Boston College	Home	18–7, 9–5 ACC
16	Thursday	L, 77–66, OT	N.C. State	Raleigh	18–8, 9–6 ACC
19	Sunday	W, 71–58	Wake Forest	Home	19–8, 10–6 ACC
23	Thursday	L, 61–59	No. 4 Virginia Tech	Home	19–9, 10–7 ACC
26	Sunday	W, 45–41	No. 13 Duke	Durham	20–9, 10–8 ACC
	March		*ACC Tournament*
2	Thursday	W, 68–58	Clemson	Greensboro	21–9
3	Friday	L, 44–40	No. 13 Duke	Greensboro	21–10
			*NCAA tournament*
18	Saturday	W, 61–59	St. John’s	Columbus, Ohio	22–10
20	Monday	L, 71–69	No. 12 Ohio State	Columbus, Ohio	22–11