UNC Women’s Basketball Wins in OT
ATLANTA – North Carolina outscored Georgia Tech 13-6 in overtime, including seven points by senior guard Madinah Muhammad, to earn an Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball road win Thursday evening, 67-60 at McCamish Pavilion. UNC improved to 14-5 overall and 5-3 in ACC play with the victory. Georgia Tech has an identical record following the loss.
Junior Janelle Bailey led UNC with 20 points – including a 10-for-10 performance from the foul line – and 11 rebounds for her 10thdouble-double of the season and 36th of her career. Muhammad finished 17, senior guard Shayla Bennett had 12 points and a team-high eight assists, and freshman Malu Tshitenge had 10 points and nine rebounds. Bailey, Bennett and senior guard Taylor Koenen played all 45 minutes for the Tar Heels.
UNC hit 15 of 16 foul shots in the win and outrebounded GT 41-35.
Next up for North Carolina is a game on Sunday at No. 8 NC State. Tipoff at Reynolds Coliseum is 6 p.m.
UNC spotted the Yellow Jackets a 6-0 lead and trailed by eight points early, with as many turnovers as points (five of each) in the first five minutes of play. The Tar Heels came out of the media timeout on a 6-0 run to close the gap, but still were down 21-16 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second period, Carolina again fell behind as the Jackets again opened up an 8-point advantage, but the Tar Heels got rolling at the end of the period with a 7-0 run going into halftime, when they were down just one, 26-25. Georgia Tech didn’t score for the final 4:07 of the second quarter.
Bailey led UNC with 10 points in the first half, while Madinah Muhammad had eight, but also had three fouls. After five turnovers in the first five minutes of play, the Tar Heels committed just three in the final 15 minutes before halftime.
A jumper by Koenen 25 seconds into the third quarter gave UNC its first lead of the game at 27-26 and the Tar Heels didn’t trail in the period after that, stretching their lead to six at two points late in the quarter, the second on a steal and layup by Koenen with 31 seconds in the period. The Jackets answered to cut the UNC lead to four at the break.
In the fourth quarter, Georgia Tech scored four quick points to tie the score at 43-43 with 7:50 to play. The Jackets regained the lead with just under five minutes remaining and the game was back and forth through the rest of the period, with UNC leading by three after two Bailey free throws with 21 seconds to play. Tech’s Kierra Fletcher nailed her only three-point attempt of the game with 11 seconds on the clock to send the game into overtime.
The extra period was the first of the season for both teams, both of which were coming off losses and trying to avoid the first back-to-back defeats of the season. UNC led throughout the period, with the final margin equal to the Tar Heels’ largest lead of the game.
Muhammad was two-for-two from the field and the Tar Heels shot 50 percent from the field and made all four free throws while outrebounding the home team 6-2, with three of those boards by Bailey.
Press release provided by UNC Associate Director of Athletics Communications Dana Gelin
Image courtesy of Landon Bost