By R.L. Bynum

After escaping Clemson with its third consecutive win, all on the road, North Carolina has earned its highest AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll ranking in more than two years.

The Tar Heels (21–4, 9–3 ACC), unbeaten on the road at 7–0, moved up one spot to No. 12 in the latest poll, released Monday, their best ranking since being No. 11 on Jan. 30, 2023. UNC, which dropped one spot in the NET rankings to 14th after Sunday’s win, has been ranked no lower than 19th this season after going unranked for the final six polls last season.

Charlie Creme’s ESPN bracket projection on Friday has UNC as a No. 3 seed in one of the Spokane regions, hosting first- and second-round games.

UNC, which beat Clemson 53–51 on Sunday, returns home for two challenging games this week — meeting Virginia Tech (16–8, 7–6) at 7 p.m. Thursday (ACC Network Extra) and N.C. State at 2 p.m. Sunday (ESPN).

The Wolfpack (19–4, 11–1) leapfrogged over UNC in the poll, going from No. 14 to No. 10 after beating Duke 89–83 and blowing out Florida State 97–74.

The Blue Devils (19–5, 10–2) went from No. 10 to No. 13 after rebounding from the loss to the Wolfpack with convincing victories over Clemson (74–55) and Miami (90–39). 

The Seminoles (19–5, 9–3) slid from No. 22 to No. 23 after earlier rolling to a 101–68 victory over Virginia.

Notre Dame (21–2, 12–0) moved up one spot to No. 2 after blowout victories over Stanford (96–47) and California (91–52). The Bears (19–6, 7–5) went from No. 21 to out of the poll after also losing 70–63 to Louisville.

Georgia Tech (20–4) is the only other ranked ACC team, moving from No. 17 to No. 19 after wins over SMU (70–69) and Boston College (71–51).

Three teams just ahead of Carolina in last week’s poll lost in addition to Duke:

— Ohio State (20–3) went from No. 8 to No. 9 after losing 65–52 to No. 1 UCLA and 84–63 to Southern Cal.

—TCU (22–3) fell from No. 9 to No. 11 after losing 59–50 to Kansas State.

— The Wildcats (22–3) dropped from No. 12 to No. 14 after an 85–55 loss to Oklahoma.

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AP Top 25

Rank	Team	Record	Poll points (1st-place votes)	Previous
1	UCLA	23–0	775 (31)	1
2	Notre Dame	21–2	733	3
3	Texas	24–2	713	4
4	South Carolina	22–2	687	2
5	LSU	25–1	646	6
6	USC	21–2	628	7
7	UConn	22–3	570	5
8	Kentucky	19–2	521	11
9	Ohio State	20–3	487	8
10	N.C. State	19–4	480	14
11	TCU	22–3	443	9
12	North Carolina	21–4	429	13
13	Duke	19–5	426	10
14	Kansas State	22–3	407	12
15	Tennessee	17–6	316	19
16	Oklahoma	17–6	311	15
17	Maryland	19–5	290	16
18	West Virginia	19–4	258	18
19	Georgia Tech	20–4	257	17
20	Oklahoma State	19–4	156	25
21	Alabama	20–5	146	23
22	Michigan State	18–5	86	20
23	Florida State	19–5	78	22
24	Creighton	20–5	61	NR
25	Baylor	20–5	48	NR

Others receiving votes: California 38, Illinois 22, Vanderbilt 20, Utah 14, South Dakota St. 7, Michigan 6, Richmond 5, Mississippi 4, Columbia 3, Harvard 2, Louisville 1, Grand Canyon 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