By R.L. Bynum

After two home ACC victories last week, North Carolina jumped five spots in the AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll to No. 14 to tie the Tar Heels’ highest rank of the season.

UNC (15–3, 3–2 ACC) knocked off Duke 53–46 in overtime on Thursday and surged past Boston College 80–67 on Sunday, earning their 15th victory, the fastest to 15 since the 2021–22 Tar Heels went 25–7 and made the NCAA Sweet 16.

Carolina was No. 14 on Nov. 11 in the first regular-season poll of the season but fell two spots the next week after the Tar Heels’ 69–58 loss to UConn in Greensboro on Nov. 15. The Tar Heels were last ranked higher than that when they were No. 11 on Jan. 30, 2023.

Carolina is also 14th in the all-important NET rankings, with a 2–3 record in Quad 1 games, 4–0 in Quad 2 games, 2–0 in Quad 3 games and 7–0 in Quad 4 games. UNC is 15th in The Athletic’s power rankings and 19th in the Massey Ratings.

UNC plays two road games this week, facing SMU (10–7, 2–2) at 8 p.m. ET Thursday (ACC Network Extra) and Pittsburgh (9–9, 1–4) at 2 p.m. Sunday (ACC Network).

Duke was one of five teams ranked within six spots above UNC in last week’s poll to lose.

Previously undefeated Georgia Tech (15–2, 3–2), which lost to Virginia Tech 105–94 in overtime Thursday and 69–60 to Louisville on Sunday, fell four spots to No. 17. The Blue Devils (13–4, 4–1) dropped two positions to No. 16 after rebounding with a 60–55 win Sunday at Virginia.

Other teams just ahead of UNC in last week’s poll to lose were Tennessee (14–2), which moved up one spot after an 89–87 loss to LSU (which moved up one spot to No. 5), and West Virginia, which dropped three spots to No. 20 after a 64–57 setback against Oklahoma State.

California (16–2, 4–1) jumped six spots to No. 18 after beating N.C. State 78–71 and Florida State 82–70. The Wolfpack (12–4, 4–1) stayed at No. 21 after rebounding to beat Stanford 81–67.

The only other ACC team in the poll is first-place Notre Dame (14–2, 5–0), which remained at No. 3 and received two first-place votes.

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AP Top 25

Rank	Team (1st-place votes)	Record	Poll points	Previous
1	UCLA (29)	16–0	773	1
2	South Carolina	16–1	740	2
3	Notre Dame (2)	14–2	710	3
4	Southern Cal	16–1	680	4
5	LSU	18–0	625	6
6	UConn	15–2	599	7
7	Texas	16–2	580	5
8	Maryland	15–1	556	8
9	Ohio State	16–0	553	9
10	TCU	17–1	501	11
11	Kansas State	17–1	492	12
12	Kentucky	15–1	428	15
13	Oklahoma	14–3	383	10
14	North Carolina	15–3	360	19
15	Tennessee	14–2	327	16
16	Duke	13–4	313	14
17	Georgia Tech	15–2	248	13
18	California	16–2	240	24
19	Alabama	16–2	235	18
20	West Virginia	13–3	178	17
21	N.C. State	12–4	131	21
22	Michigan State	13–3	117	20
23	Utah	13–3	91	22
T24	Minnesota	16–1	45	NR
T24	Oklahoma State	14–2	45	NR

OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Michigan 43, Mississippi St. 22, Indiana 14, Creighton 12, Nebraska 11, Baylor 8, Louisville 5, Harvard 3, Mississippi 3, Florida St. 2, Iowa 1 and Vanderbilt 1.

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Team	League	Overall	NET*	WAB*
No. 13 Duke	16–2	21–8	10	13
No. 12 Louisville	15–3	25–6	13	10
No. 16 North Carolina	14–4	25–6	19	14
N.C. State	13–5	20–9	23	27
Syracuse	12–6	22–7	40	31
Virginia Tech	12–6	22–8	41	34
Notre Dame	12–6	20–9	24	23
Clemson	11–7	20–10	44	40
Virginia	11–7	19–10	36	49
California	9–9	18–13	53	60
Stanford	8–10	19–12	42	56
Miami	8–10	16–13	58	65
Georgia Tech	7–10	12–17	76	109
Florida State	5–13	10–20	107	138
Wake Forest	4–14	14–16	121	134
SMU	2–16	9–21	220	209
Pittsburgh	1–17	8–23	262	238
Boston College	1–17	5–26	247	283

* — Through Sunday games
Thursday’s results
No. 16 North Carolina 82, Virginia 70
No. 12 Louisville 69, Georgia Tech 50
Notre Dame 72, Syracuse 62
Miami 79, Pittsburgh 58
N.C. State 65, Wake Forest 58
No. 13 Duke 80, Florida State 52
Stanford 87, SMU 57
Clemson 70, California 63
Sunday’s results
No. 16 North Carolina 74, No. 13 Duke 69
Virginia Tech 83, Virginia 82
Georgia Tech 79, Miami 49
N.C. State 93, Pittsburgh 43
Stanford 85, Clemson 50
Syracuse 90, Boston College 65
Notre Dame 65, No. 12 Louisville 62
Florida State 77, Wake Forest 74, OT
California 78, SMU 34
End of regular season
ACC tournament
Gas South Arena
Duluth, Ga.
March 4–8

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Date	Day/month	Scores	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
30	Thursday	L, 91–82	No. 4 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. 2 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. 3 Texas	8–2
			———————————
7	Sunday	W, 82–40	vs. Boston Univ.	9–2
14	Sunday	L, 76–66, OT	vs. No. 13 Louisville	9–3, 0–1 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 84–34	vs. UNCW	10–3
21	Sunday	W, 93–74	vs. Charleston Southern	11–3
29	Monday	W, 90–38	at Boston College	12–3, 1–1 ACC
	January
1	Thursday	W, 71–55	vs. California	13–3, 2–1
4	Sunday	L, 77–71, OT	vs. Stanford	13–4, 2–2
11	Sunday	L, 73–50	at No. 22 Notre Dame	13–5, 2–3
15	Thursday	W, 73–62	vs. Miami	14–5, 3–3
18	Sunday	W, 82–55	at Florida State	15–5, 4–3
22	Thursday	W, 54–46	at Georgia Tech	16–5, 5–3
25	Sunday	W, 77–71, OT	vs. Syracuse	17–5, 6–3
	February
2	Monday	W, 61–59	at N.C. State	18–5, 7–3
5	Thursday	W, 53–44	vs. Clemson	19–5, 8–3
8	Sunday	W, 84–56	vs. Wake Forest	20–5, 9–3
12	Thursday	W, 94–42	vs. SMU	21–5, 10–3
15	Sunday	L, 72–68	at No. 8 Duke	21–6, 10–4
19	Thursday	W, 66–63, OT	at Virginia Tech	22–6, 11–4
22	Sunday	W, 78–50	vs. Pittsburgh	23–6, 12–4
26	Thursday	W, 82–70	at Virginia	24–6, 13–4
	March
1	Sunday	W, 72–69	vs. No. 8 Duke	25–6, 14–4
	ACC tournament		Gas South Arena, Duluth, Ga.
6	Friday	W, 85–68	Quarterfinal vs. Va. Tech	26–6
7	Saturday	L, 65–57	Semifinal vs. No. 13 Louisville	26–7
			NCAA tournament Fort Worth 1 Regional
21	Friday	W, 82–51	First round in Chapel Hill: vs. Western Illinois	27–7
23	Sunday	W, 74–66	Second round in Chapel Hill: No. 17 Maryland	28–7
27	Friday	L, 63–52	Sweet 16 in Fort Worth, Texas: vs. No. 1 UConn	28–8

Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics