By R.L. Bynum

There is a good omen and plenty of positive momentum for Carolina’s women’s basketball team heading into the Tar Heels’ showdown at No. 16 Notre Dame on Sunday.

Coming off a pair of impressive victories to open ACC play, the Tar Heels will play their latest first true road game in a season since a trip to Duke on Jan. 19, 1994. That may not seem significant until you consider that UNC won its only national championship a couple of months later in Richmond.

Coach Courtney Banghart’s fourth UNC team (10–2, 1–1 ACC) aspires to earn the second title in program history, and a road win against the Irish would go a long way toward proving that the Tar Heels can be a title contender.

They battle at the Purcell Pavilion at 5 p.m. (ESPN2).

Senior Alyssa Ustby made history by producing the first triple-double in program history with 16 points, a season-high 16 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists in Carolina’s 75–51 home win over No. 25 Syracuse.

Many of the assists were to junior center Maria Gakdeng, who tied her season-high 22 points, and she was one of many UNC players still motivated by the Heels falling out of the AP Top 25.

“We had a chip on our shoulders,” Gakdeng said after the game. “Especially me just knowing that I had to come and bring the kind of consistency that I had to have at the beginning of the season. So knowing that I had to step up and be a force inside was a motivating factor.”

Ustby consistently found Gakdeng with high-low passes, with Gakdeng getting good position around the basket.

“Maria and I spend a lot of time in our post group together and just practicing with each other,” Ustby said. “So, that’s where you start to build game chemistry. Doing that has helped a lot, and then just being each other’s biggest motivators and cheerleaders because we’re in the trenches together, going after rebounds, trying to dig them out and setting good screens, all those little things that take a little more attention to detail. We’re with each other on that and so we’re going kind of going through the same thing. And so we’re there to support each other.

Beating Notre Dame (10–2, 1–1) is never easy, but the Irish have struggled with injuries and will probably be short-handed.

Obviously, UNC also has dealt with injuries, including two freshmen — forward Ciera Toomey (recovering from a torn right ACL) and guard Laila Hull (torn right labrum) — redshirting and redshirt sophomore guard Kayla McPherson (knee injury) out for the rest of the season.

It may be more of a challenge for Notre Dame.

Junior All-American 5–10 guard Olivia Miles has yet to make her season debut after right knee surgery in April. Junior 6–1 guard Sonia Citron, a first-team All-ACC player last season, hasn’t played in the last nine games because of a right knee sprain.

Sophomore guard Cass Prosper (lower leg injury) hasn’t played since Nov. 29, and graduate Jenna Brown hasn’t made her season debut because of an injury. Freshman Emma Risch underwent season-ending hip surgery on Thursday.

The main player for UNC to stop, and likely the defensive assignment for Lexi Donarski, is 5–6 freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo, who leads the league in scoring (24.5 points per game) and steals (5.8) and is shooting 50.2% from the floor. She’s been the ACC Rookie of the Week six times, the ACC Player of the Week twice, National Freshman of the Week twice and National Player of the Week once.

Senior 6–3 forward Maddy Westbeld averages nearly a double-double with 14.7 points and nine assists per game, and can score buckets in bunches if she gets hot.

NOTES — Notre Dame leads the all-time series 10–4, but UNC has won two of the last three, including last season’s 60–50 win in Chapel Hill. … The teams have two common opponents. No. 1 South Carolina beat the Irish 100–71 in the season opener in Paris, and the Heels lost to the Gamecocks 65–58. Syracuse beat Notre Dame 86–81 the game before the Orange lost at UNC. … Pam Ward and Stephanie White will be on the ESPN2 call of the game.

UNC season statistics

Notre Dame season statistics

Date	Day/month	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
30	Thursday	L, 91–82	No. 3 South Carolina in Atlanta	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 90–42	vs. N.C. Central	1–0
6	Thursday	W, 71–37	vs. Elon	2–0
			WBCA Challenge Las Vegas
13	Thursday	L, 78–60	vs. No. 4 UCLA	2–1
15	Saturday	W, 82–68	vs. Fairfield	3–1
			———————————
20	Thursday	W, 85–50	at N.C. A&T	4–1
23	Sunday	W, 94–48	vs. UNCG	5–1
			Cancun Challenge Cancun, Mexico
27	Thursday	W, 83–48	vs. South Dakota St.	6–1
28	Friday	W, 85–73	vs. Kansas State	7–1
29	Saturday	W, 80–63	vs. Columbia	8–1
	December		ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge
4	Thursday	W, 79–64	at No. 2 Texas	8–2
			———————————
7	Sunday	W, 82–40	vs. Boston Univ.	9–2
14	Sunday	L, 76–66, OT	vs. No. 16 Louisville	9–3, 0–1 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 84–34	vs. UNCW	10–3
21	Sunday	Noon	vs. Charleston Southern	ACCN Extra
29	Monday	8 p.m.	at Boston College	ACCN
	January
1	Thursday	Noon	vs. California	ACCN
4	Sunday	1 p.m.	vs. Stanford	ESPN
11	Sunday	1 p.m.	at No. 20 Notre Dame	ESPN
15	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Miami	ACCN Extra
18	Sunday	2 p.m.	at Florida State	The CW
22	Thursday	8 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
25	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	The CW
	February
2	Monday	6 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN2
5	Thursday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ACCN
8	Sunday	2 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
12	Thursday	6 p.m.	vs. SMU	ACCN
15	Sunday	1 p.m.	at Duke	ABC
19	Thursday	6 p.m.	at Virginia Tech	ACCN
22	Sunday	Noon	vs. Pittsburgh	ACCN
26	Thursday	7 p.m.	at Virginia	ACCN Extra
	March
1	Sunday	Noon	vs. Duke	ESPN
			ACC tournament
4–8	Wed.-Sun		Gas South Arena, Duluth, Ga.
			NCAA tournament
20–24	Fri.-Mon.		First, second rounds
27–30	Fri.-Mon.		Regionals Fort Worth, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif.
	April
3, 5	Fri., Sun		Final Four Phoenix