By R.L. Bynum

North Carolina moved up four spots to No. 18 in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll heading into this week’s ACC tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum.

The Tar Heels (20–9) rebounded from a heartbreaking 61–59 senior night loss Thursday against No. 9 Virginia Tech by ruining the senior day for Duke (24–5) on Sunday 45–41.

UNC, the No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament, plays at 6 p.m. Thursday in the second round against the winner of Wednesday’s 3:30 p.m. first-round game between No. 10-seed Clemson (16–13) and No. 15-seed Pittsburgh (10–19). A win there would earn the Tar Heels a quarterfinals matchup at 6 p.m. Friday against Duke, which they swept in the regular season for a second consecutive season.

Carolina moved up one spot in the NET rankings to No. 23 after beating Duke, which fell one spot to No. 9. UNC is 18th in the Massey Ratings. ESPN’s last bracket projection, released before the Duke game, had the Tar Heels as a No. 5 seed.

The Blue Devils, who beat N.C. State 77–62 on Thursday, fell two spots to No. 13 and will be the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament.

The Hokies (24–4), the No. 3 seed, move up one spot to No. 8 in the poll after also beating Georgia Tech 65–52. Notre Dame (24–4), the ACC’s regular-season champion and No. 1 seed in the tournament, stayed at No. 10 in the poll after beating Georgia Tech 76–53 and Louisville 68–65.

Florida State (23–8), ranked No. 23 last week, fell out of the poll after beating Wake Forest 61–60 and but losing to Clemson 74–61.

Voting Carolina the highest at No. 12 was Mitchell Northam of WUNC, the only North Carolina-based voter.

Leaving the Tar Heels off their ballots were Brice Cherry of the Waco Tribune-Herald, Danny Davis of the Austin American-Statesman, David Cloninger of The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., and Jeff Linder of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Other voters had UNC No. 14 (2), No. 15 (2), No. 16 (3), No. 17 (3), No. 18 (2), No. 19 (2), No. 21 (4), No. 22 (3) and No 24 (2).

AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Change	Poll points (1st-place votes)
1	South Carolina (29–0)	—	700 (28)
2	Indiana (26–2)	—	650
3	Utah (25–3)	+5	599
4	LSU (27–1)	+1	590
5	Maryland (24–5)	+2	588
6	Stanford (27–4)	-3	587
7	Iowa (23–6)	-1	560
8	Virginia Tech (24–4)	+1	497
9	UConn (25–5)	-5	484
10	Notre Dame (24–4)	—	481
11	Villanova (25–5)	+4	378
12	Texas (22–7)	+7	355
13	Duke (24–5)	-2	347
14	Ohio State (23–6)	+2	331
15	Gonzaga (27–3)	+3	282
16	Oklahoma (22–5)	-3	273
17	Michigan (21–8)	-5	202
18	North Carolina (20–9)	+4	183
19	UCLA (22–8)	-2	181
20	Colorado (22–7)	+1	174
21	Arizona (21–8)	-7	144
22	UNLV (27–2)	+2	122
23	Iowa State (18–8)	-3	115
24	Middle Tennessee (23–4)	+1	58
25	South Florida (25–5)	—	42

Others receiving votes: Creighton 34, Tennessee 31, Florida State 24, Oklahoma State 18, Florida Gulf Coast 13, Ole Miss 13, USC 10, South Dakota State 10, Louisville 8, Toledo 8, Illinois 5, N.C. State 3

---

ACC Tournament

Greensboro Coliseum
Final on ESPN; all other games on ACC Network
Wednesday’s first round
No. 12-seed Wake Forest 68, vs. No. 13-seed Virginia (15–15) 57
No. 10 Clemson 71, No. 15 Pittsburgh (10–20) 53
No. 11 Boston College 62, No. 14 Georgia Tech (13–16) 57
Thursday’s second round
Wake Forest 65, No. 5 Florida State (23–9) 54
No. 8 N.C. State 83, No. 9 Syracuse (18–12) 58
No. 7 North Carolina 68, vs. Clemson (17–14) 58
No. 6 Miami 84, vs. Boston College (16–16) 69
Friday’s quarterfinals
No. 4 Louisville 74, Wake Forest (16–16) 48
No. 1 Notre Dame 66, N.C. State (20–11) 60
No. 2 Duke 44, North Carolina (21–10) 40
No. 3 Virginia Tech 68, Miami (19–11) 42
Saturday’s semifinals
Louisville 64, Notre Dame (25–5) 38
Virginia Tech 58, Duke (25–6) 37
Sunday’s final
Virginia Tech (26–4) 75, Louisville (23–11) 67

---

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

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications