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.

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.

Team	League	Overall	NET*
No. 13 Louisville	2–0	12–3	13
N.C. State	2–0	9–4	30
Syracuse	1–0	11–1	40
Stanford	1–0	11–2	31
No. 18 Notre Dame	1–0	9–2	16
Virginia	1–0	9–3	33
Duke	1–0	6–6	29
Virginia Tech	1–1	11–3	52
Wake Forest	1–1	11–3	119
Clemson	1–1	9–4	48
Miami	1–1	8–4	45
No. 16 North Carolina	0–1	11–3	20
California	0–1	8–5	63
SMU	0–1	7–6	137
Pittsburgh	0–1	7–7	234
Boston College	0–1	4–10	215
Florida State	0–2	5–9	113
Georgia Tech	0–2	4–9	122

* — Through Tuesday games
Saturday’s results
No. 13 Louisville 89, No. 23 Tennessee 65
Virginia 88, Winthrop 53
Florida State 77, South Carolina State 36
Duke 76, Belmont 46
Sunday’s results
No. 16 North Carolina 93, Charleston Southern 74
Virginia Tech 79, Radford 47
N.C. State 68, Davidson 49
Miami 85, Kennesaw State 55
Duquesne 84, Pittsburgh 69
Clemson 84, North Florida 62
SMU 74, Southern 62
Stanford 64, Oregon 53
No. 18 Notre Dame 110, Bellarmine 38
No. 17 USC 61, California 57
Monday’s result
Wake Forest 78, Gardner-Webb 66
Sunday’s games
Wofford at Georgia Tech, noon, ACC Network
Stetson at Miami, 2 p.m., ACC Network
Clemson at Chicago State, 3 p.m.
Duke at Syracuse, 4 p.m., ACC Network
Cornell at Stanford, 4 p.m., ACCN Extra
Cal Poly at California, 5 p.m., ACCN Extra
Monday, Dec. 29, games
Pittsburgh at No. 18 Notre Dame, 6 p.m., ACCN
SMU at Virginia, 7 p.m., ACCN Extra
No. 16 North Carolina at Boston College, 8 p.m., ACC Network

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. 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	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. 18 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