By R.L. Bynum
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The perimeter shooting talent has always been there for No. 21 North Carolina, but hasn’t always translated to games.
That’s changed in a big way at just the right time.
No. 21 North Carolina buried a school-record 16 3-pointers Thursday night at John Paul Jones Arena, shooting a season-best 66.7% from beyond the arc in a convincing 82–70 Quad 1 victory over Virginia.
The win locked up the No. 3 seed and a double-bye in the ACC tournament and kept the Tar Heels (24–6, 13–4 ACC) firmly in the conversation to host NCAA tournament games.
“We keep hearing that we got so close to breaking the record, but we didn’t do it,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said after her team tied the school record in Sunday’s win over Pittsburgh. “When the ball goes in, it’s a good shot for us. We call it a practice shot if it’s in the right way, and it was the right way.”
After hitting 14 3-pointers 14 times in program history, that record finally fell for the Tar Heels, who have 30 3-pointers in the last two games.
“Our team has been shooting threes so well the whole season, we knew we were full of shooters, our whole team,” sophomore guard Elina Aarnisalo, who scored career-highs of 20 points and four 3-pointers, told ACC Network. “So, it’s just about the confidence we have, getting ready for the games, getting our shots up. So we knew we can do this.”
Aarnisalo fittingly broke the record with her fourth 3-pointer with 4:25 left. But it wasn’t just scoring where she made a difference. She dished out four assists and had a team- and season-high seven rebounds.
“She dove into the glass,” Banghart said. “I think we need her to rebound. [The seven rebounds were] just huge. But honestly, her being aggressive is critical to our offensive flow, and I thought she was really aggressive.”
With Reniya Kelly out for a sixth consecutive game, Aarnisalo is handling the ball more and has been up for the task.
“I’m comfortable out there,” Aarnisalo said. “My confidence is getting better all the time. I have all the support from my teammates and my coaching staff. So, it’s great to be out there.”
Four other Tar Heels scored in double figures, and four others had multiple 3-pointers. Virginian Lanie Grant (15 points, 3 3-pointers), Nyla Brooks (11, 3) and Ciera Toomey (10, 2) led the perimeter assault. Nyla Harris collected 10 points and four rebounds as Carolina’s spacing stretched Virginia’s defense possession after possession.
“It was just one of those things where they got hot early, and it was like they were shooting into an ocean,” Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We tried to adjust multiple times on defense, but they were just hot, and we just caught them on the wrong night.”
The ball movement was as sharp as the shooting. UNC assisted on 21 of its 29 field goals, repeatedly collapsing the defense and kicking to open shooters.
“It’s a lot of gaps to attack when you have shooters,” senior guard Indya Nivar said after finishing with a team-high seven assists.
“I feel like I draw three people in the lane and it’s a clear kick-out to my shooters,” Nivar said. “I believe in them. I give them confidence to shoot that ball every time, and tonight we were hitting, so it just shows the work that we put in day in and day out.”
Virginia (19–9, 11–6) entered the game fresh off a road upset of No. 10 Louisville but struggled to find rhythm early.
UNC scored the game’s first seven points as the Cavaliers missed their first six shots, and the Tar Heels cleaned up every defensive rebound. Harris’ drive made it 9–0, and Carolina carried a 15–8 lead after one quarter following 3s from Taliyah Henderson and Toomey.
Three Brooks 3-pointers sparked a 17–7 run late in the second quarter that pushed the lead to 15. Two more 3s from Aarnisalo extended it to 19, and UNC took a 40–23 advantage into halftime.
“We were really good defensively,” Banghart said. “When that happens, that allows us to play against a retreating defense, and then we were aggressive. We’ve got a lot of guys that were aggressive. We sort of have found our way there.”
Virginia averages 76.1 points per game, but scored only 23 in the first half.
“Live-ball stops forced them to get into their zone, and then we kind of sliced apart their zone,” Banghart said. “We were ready for their zone. We were ready for their man and, more importantly, our players were ready.”
Carolina stretched the margin to 22 on a pair of Harris free throws midway through the third quarter before Virginia mounted a push. A 10–3 Cavaliers run trimmed the lead to 15 and prompted a Banghart timeout after a pair of turnovers.
“We turned it over on press break, and that was uncharacteristic,” Banghart said of why she called the timeout. “I just wanted to settle them back down. It’s hard when you have a big lead because every score feels like they’re feeling good about themselves, so I wanted a chance to regroup.”
Virginia increased its defensive pressure in the second half, mixing in full-court traps and zone looks in an effort to change the tempo.
“I was just trying to get our energy going,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “We needed to dig out of a hole, so we were trying to get turnovers and get our energy going.”
Two 3s and a jumper from Grant steadied UNC after Virginia cut it to 15, and although the Cavaliers used an 8–0 run to slice the deficit to 11 late in the third, Carolina answered again. Aarnisalo and Laila Hull drilled 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push the lead back to 15 with under four minutes remaining, effectively sealing it.
Defensively, Nivar set the tone against Virginia star Kymora Johnson, who finished with 22 points but had to work for most of them. Some of her five 3-pointers came with Nivar got switched off of her.
“She’s the head of the snake, and we emphasized that in our scout and watched a lot of film,” Nivar said. “She moves off the ball really well. She moves with the ball really well. It was a tough battle making sure we had a body in front of her every time. It wasn’t my job only.
“My teammates also took on a role to make sure they were in my gaps and in my help just in case, because she’s a really good player,” Nivar said. “Once I took away the three, the drive came and they were in my help every time. It was a group effort for sure.”
The victory capped a late-season surge that has seen UNC win 11 of its last 12 after some rough patches in December.
“We lost two of three in December and it felt like three of three,” Banghart said. “If you had asked me, or anybody, in December if we’d be the outright three seed, I don’t know if people would have believed us, but there’s a lot of belief in that locker room.”
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Notes
— UNC finishes the regular season with Sunday’s noon senior-day game (ESPN) against No. 12 Duke. The league-leading Blue Devils (21–7, 16–1) rolled to an 80–52 home win Thursday over Florida State.
— Carolina has won at Virginia in men’s and women’s basketball for the first time since the 2013–14 season, when the women won 80–54 on Feb. 20 and the men won 54–51 on Feb. 25.
— As the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament, UNC will play a quarterfinal game at 7:30 on Friday, March 6.
—UNC snapped a two-game losing streak against Virginia, and leads the all-time series 60–36, including 21–18 in Charlottesville.
— It was the Tar Heels’ best 3-point percentage since also shooting 66.7% (10 of 15) against James Madison on Dec. 5, 2021.
— In ACC play, UNC leads the league in 3-pointers per game with 8.18, easily better than the 7.35 from Louisville and Clemson.
— Carolina moved to 3–5 in Quad 1 games, also with wins at N.C. State and at Virginia Tech.
— It was UNC’s third game this season with at least 14 3-pointers.
— Hull scored three 3-pointers for the second consecutive game.
— Nivar (4 points) and Toomey both fouled out.
— Banghart said she hoped Kelly would play again this season.
— Freshman Virginia guard Gabby White, who entered the game averaging 7.3 points but went scoreless, is the daughter of UNC associate head coach Joanne Aluka-White.
— It was Virginia’s Play4Kay game, and the Cavaliers wore pink uniforms, and UNC wore its home white uniforms.
— White presented a tearful Aluka-White, who is fighting breast cancer, with flowers after a video was shown of her praising the strength and the fight of the coach.
— Harris, who was a game-time decision, had her left leg stretched for a few minutes before the game by the athletic trainer, then had a wrap placed around her right leg. She played with a sleeve on her right leg. She was on the stationary bike during the fourth quarter.
— Tiffany Bird, Billy Smith and Jeffrey Smith were the referees, meaning it was the third consecutive game that the Tar Heels didn’t see any of the three officials who worked the game at Duke (Pulani Spurlock, Maj Forsberg and Kaite Lukanich) when they never attempted a free throw.
No. 21 UNC 82, Virginia 70
| 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
Non-conference schedule
| Date | Day/ month | Time | Opponent/event (rank in final poll) |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | |||
| 2 | Monday | TBA | Oui-Play in Paris vs. No 12 Oklahoma |
| 8 | Sunday | TBA | Ally Tipoff in Charlotte vs. No. 2 South Carolina |
| 11 | Wednesday | TBA | vs. N.C. Central |
| 14 | Saturday | TBA | at Penn in Palestra |
| WBCA Showcase Orlando | |||
| 19 | Thursday | 6 p.m. | vs. Texas Tech |
| 21 | Saturday | 5 p.m. | vs. No. 24 Alabama |
| ——— | |||
| 24 | Tuesday | TBA | vs. Gardner-Webb |
| 27 | Friday | TBA | vs. Army |
| 29 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Brown |
| December | |||
| 2 | Wednesday | TBA | ACC/SEC Women’s Challenge vs. No. 8 LSU |
| 6 | Sunday | TBA | vs. Elon |
| 9 | Wednesday | 11 a.m. | vs. Winthrop |
| 21 | Monday | TBA | vs. Norfolk State |
| 28 | Monday | TBA | vs. UNCW |
ACC home opponents: Duke, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Virginia.
ACC road opponents: Duke, Stanford, California, Louisville, Clemson, Miami, Syracuse, SMU and Pittsburgh
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
