Covering Carolina sports beyond just men's basketball and football — with the most complete women's basketball coverage
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Eva Hodgson donned her signature bucket hat on Sunday as she talked about the relief of North Carolina’s first-round escape. She knows that her college career is one Tar Heels loss from ending, and you could see the emotion of that reality when she was on the sidelines on Saturday.
No. 20-ranked North Carolina plays on Ohio State’s home court for a berth in the Sweet 16 at 4 p.m. Monday in a game that will air on ESPN. The No. 6-seed Tar Heels’ game against the No. 12-ranked and No. 6-seed Buckeyes (26–7) at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, is the initial second-round NCAA tournament game of the day.
The easy explanation for how North Carolina’s women’s basketball team extended its season Saturday: Deja Kelly drove down the left side of the lane and banked in a shot with 2.3 seconds left as Mimi Reid of St. John’s fouled her to break a tie. She finished the three-point play.
In many NCAA tournament matchups, neither team is familiar with the other. On Saturday, former Pittsburgh star Jayla Everett will know No. 20 Carolina and the No. 6-seed Tar Heels will know the talented forward, who led No. 11 seed St. John’s to its first NCAA tournament berth in seven years.
After playing sparingly in his sophomore season at North Carolina, wing Dontrez Styles is entering the transfer portal to find a new basketball home, according to On3. It was always going to be a tough decision for the 6–6, 210-pound former Kinston High School star, who grew up as a UNC fan and with his room decorated with Carolina items. When he committed to the Tar Heels, he said it was something that he had been “dreaming of since I was a little kid.”
Justin Jackson has put up a lot of big numbers in the G League since joining the struggling Texas Legends on Feb. 24 and did that again on Thursday night, finally in a victory. He had that sweet jump shot going that Carolina fans know so well, and put together an outstanding overall game.
CHAPEL HILL — The first month of the season has been a power trip for No. 18 North Carolina, which is hitting home runs at a school-record pace and piling up runs. That continued Wednesday with three home runs, as the Tar Heels scored double-digit runs for the ninth time and at least 14 for the sixth time. UNC collected 17 hits in a 16–2 rout of High Point on a chilly evening at Boshamer Stadium for its third win in a row.
No. 18 North Carolina had it all going right after a bumpy start, as the Tar Heels rolled to a 16–3 road victory over Charlotte on Tuesday.
Dontrez Styles, who still is deciding whether he’ll return to Carolina next season, said Tuesday that Coach Hubert Davis told the team after the NCAA selection show that the Tar Heels wouldn’t accept an NIT invitation. “It was the coach’s decision,” Styles said during his weekly “Tuesdays with Trez” segment on “The Bryan Hanks Show” on WRNS 960 AM in Kinston.
The shuffling of the Carolina men’s basketball roster is under way. With several reserves getting little playing time, some of them figured to move on. That started Monday when Tyler Nickel and Justin McKoy entered the transfer portal. Nickel has three years of eligibility left, and McKoy would play a fifth season as a graduate transfer.
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