By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — No. 19 North Carolina came out after halftime with energy for the second consecutive game and took over.

Unlike against No. 14 Duke three days earlier when the Tar Heels had to go to overtime to win, Carolina kept its foot on the gas and coasted to an 80–67 victory Sunday at Carmichael Arena over Boston College.

“At halftime, I really challenged them to remember what they’re about and how they want to perform in the second half,” said UNC coach Courtney Banghart, whose team went from allowing BC to shoot 60% in the second quarter to holding the Eagles to 29.6% in the second half.

UNC (15–3, 3–2 ACC ), which scored the first 16 points after halftime against the Blue Devils, began the second half against BC (10–8, 1–4) with a 16–4 run.

This is the fastest Carolina has got its 15th win since the 2021–22 team went 25–7 and made the Sweet 16.

“I just thought they came out flat, and they’ll have to answer to that,” Banghart said of her team, which won after trailing at halftime for the first time this season. “At halftime, they quickly made the adjustment of understanding the urgency that they need, and we’ll continue to work with their urgency moving forward.”

Sophomore guard Reniya Kelly spearheaded the charge for the Tar Heels, which was fueled on the defensive end. She played an outstanding floor game, collecting 14 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Alyssa Ustby led three Tar Heels in double figures with 17 points.

“Reniya’s a dog. Alyssa is a dog. That certainly helps,” Banghart said. “They played the way that we needed them to play in the second half.”

Kelly said that the Tar Heels needed floor leadership against BC, which was her focus for the game. She has been a steadying force, with only one turnover in the last four games.

“I think I did that this game; so proud of myself for that,” Kelly said. “I think also, just taking command of each position. What’s really big this game, too, is just making sure I put my teammates in the best position to score and [to] make the extra pass.”

Banghart said that Kelly’s ovation when she comes out of games reminds her of when Ustby first got to Carolina and ascended to becoming a star.

Turning up the defense and eliminating the turnovers made a big difference after Boston College took a 40–37 halftime lead. Banghart said Carolina played defense with much more urgency in the second half.

“Defensively, we were much better, which allows you to score against a non-set defense,” Banghart said. “Also, you play better offense when you’re more connected, and you play with urgency.”

UNC committed 10 first-half turnovers to give them 50 in five halves (including the Duke win and the Notre Dame loss) before turning the ball over only four times in the second half, with two coming on offensive fouls.

It helped that Ustby shook off an 11-turnover game against Duke and was turnover-free in nearly 32 minutes.

“I think it starts for us on the defensive end,” Ustby said. “When we get stops together, we feel a little more connected on offense, and the offensive flow is better. A lot of turnovers typically come from miscommunications.

“We don’t see that corner skip [pass], so that’s usually where turnovers can come from, especially for me,” Ustby said. “So just being able to slow down and just continue to do things that we can control, which is on the defensive end, and then that translates into the [offensive] end.”

Banghart suggested that it’s “not great” when UNC doesn’t take advantage of a “rim runner” such as Ustby, and that wasn’t an issue in the second half. She scored three layups in 33 seconds during that pivotal early second-half run.

“That’s just team defense, getting a defensive board and looking up the court and passing ahead,” Ustby said. “We’re really hard to guard in transition because Maria [Gakdeng] and I and the rest of our posts can run the floor. But we also have a lot of great passers and girls who can space the floor by fading out to the 3-point line. They kind of have to pick their poison.”

Carolina again battled foul trouble, with Lexi Donarski and Indya Nivar each picking up three fouls in the first half. Nivar fouled out early in the fourth quarter with 8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists in 16 minutes, and Ustby finished with four fouls.

The 27 BC free-throw attempts (making 20) were the most by a UNC opponent this season. UNC also took advantage of the foul fest, going 17 of 23 as referees whistled 45 total fouls.

UNC got 3-pointers from Kelly and Donarski during a 10–2 run to grab an eight-point lead with 3:33 left in the first quarter. Carolina led 21–16 after one quarter despite going without a field goal in the period after that run, with Tatum Greene hitting a 3-pointer for BC at the buzzer.

After the Tar Heels took a seven-point lead on a Blanca Thomas bucket in the first 15 seconds of the second quarter, BC went on an 11–1 run to seize a three-point lead.

With Nivar and Donarski out for half of the second quarter and Tray Crisp missing the game with a lower-body injury, two guards — redshirt freshman Laila Hull and freshman Jordan Zubich — made their ACC debuts in the period, playing for the first time since the Dec. 21 win over Norfolk State.

“We celebrated them in the locker room,” Banghart said of her bench. “The bench really was what we needed.”

Freshman Lanie Grant came off the bench to score a pair of 3-pointers and netted seven of her 12 points in the second half.

BC scored six points in a row to lead by 6. A Kelly jumper with three seconds left cut the Eagles’ halftime lead to three.

Carolina took over from there with its second-half surge, shoving the lead to 11 on a Kelly jumper with 1:43 left in the third quarter. Two Kelly free throws gave Carolina a 60–52 lead after three quarters.

BC cut the lead that was 18 to 11 with a 10–3 run but got no closer, and a Zubich 3-pointer with 1:11 left provided the final margin.

NOTES — Carolina goes on the road at 8 p.m. ET Thursday for its first game against new ACC member SMU (ACC Network Extra). The Mustangs (10–7, 2–3) were outscored 28–0 in the third quarter Sunday in a 72–59 loss at Pittsburgh. SMU led 46–14 with 1:37 left in the first half, making Pitt’s comeback the largest in a regulation game in Division I women’s basketball history. In 2006, Texas State rallied from a 32-point deficit to win in overtime. … A Carolina team with dangerous perimeter shooters continues to struggle of late from 3-point range. UNC made only 5 of 21 attempts and is 19 of 78 (24.3%) in the last four games. … UNC’s 73.9% free-throw shooting was its best in ACC play and only the seventh time this season the Heels have shot better than 70%. … This was the first time since UNC’s 1994 national championship season that the Tar Heels have played four of their first five league games at home. … Ustby is the active ACC career rebounding leader with 1,119. … Greene, a freshman BC guard, is the daughter of former UNC and Minnesota Lynx wing Chanel Wright-Greene, who was the ACC Freshman of the Year in 1996 and played for Carolina through the 1998–99 season. Wright-Greene was at the game wearing a BC jersey. … UNC has won three of the last four meetings with BC and leads the series 17–5, including 8–2 in Chapel Hill.

No. 19 UNC 80, BC 67

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 16 Louisville	2–0	11–3	14
N.C. State	2–0	8–4	28
Syracuse	1–0	11–1	41
Stanford	1–0	10–2	33
No. 20 Notre Dame	1–0	8–2	19
Virginia	1–0	8–3	30
Duke	1–0	5–6	32
Wake Forest	1–1	10–3	122
Virginia Tech	1–1	9–3	53
Clemson	1–1	8–4	47
Miami	1–1	7–4	48
No. 18 North Carolina	0–1	10–3	16
California	0–1	8–4	69
Pittsburgh	0–1	7–6	2270
SMU	0–1	6–6	155
Boston College	0–1	4–10	207
Florida State	0–2	4–9	127
Georgia Tech	0–2	4–9	128

* — Through Thursday games
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
Syracuse 106, Mercyhurst 40
Northeastern 73, Boston College 67
SMU 73, Sam Houston 69
Stanford 67, No. 22 Washington 62
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
Monday’s game
Gardner-Webb at Wake Forest, 1 p.m., ACCN Extra

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