Tar Heels Hang On To Upset No. 3 Louisville At Home

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The No. 24 North Carolina women’s basketball team pulled off its biggest win of the season Thursday, knocking off No. 3 Louisville 66-65 at Carmichael Arena. The Tar Heels improved to 20-5 on the season, reaching the 20-wins mark for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

“Well, that was fun,” sophomore Kennedy Todd-Williams said afterward, in the understatement of the evening. “We played our butts off ‘til the very end. We stayed locked in, we knew the scout. Louisville is a great team but we came on top. I think we did our job. It’s a fun moment and an exciting moment for us.”

UNC improved to 10-5 in ACC play, reaching double-digits in conference wins for the first time since that 2014-15 season. Louisville fell to 22-3 overall and 13-2 in the ACC.

Todd-Williams finished with a career-high 19 points, capped by a pair of free throws with 16 seconds to play. The first tied the score at 65 and the second put UNC ahead by what would prove to be the final margin. Louisville got off two shots after that and the final one hung on the rim – “it felt like an hour,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said – before falling away and launching the Tar Heel celebration.

Deja Kelly also reached double figures with 18 points, 12 of which came before halftime. Alyssa Ustby led UNC in rebounding with nine as the Tar Heels won the battle of the boards by 10, 42-32.

The third-ranked Cardinals are the highest-ranked team Carolina has beaten under Banghart, who is in her third year in Chapel Hill. It’s the highest-ranked team that UNC has beaten since Carolina knocked off then-No. 1 Notre Dame in 2019.

“I am so happy for them, to be validated with how much effort and how much better they’ve gotten over the last six months,” Banghart said. “It’s a team that just keeps getting better individually and collectively.”

UNC held the lead for less than six minutes of the game’s 40 minutes. After trading buckets early, the Cardinals pulled ahead and were up by four at the end of the first period, when the visitors shot 50 percent from the field to UNC’s 35.7. The Cardinals took a 10-point lead three times in the second quarter, but UNC cut the margin to five by halftime, 37-32, as Todd-Williams beat the buzzer with a lay-up.

Louisville held the advantage throughout the entire third quarter until the final moments, when Ustby drained a three and then Eva Hodgson converted a three-point play to put UNC up by 1, 48-47, with 28 seconds to play in the period. It was the Tar Heels’ first lead since 10-9 midway through the first quarter. Louisville’s Mykasa Robinson drained a three at the buzzer to send her team into the final period up by two.

The Cardinals extended their lead to as many as six points in the four quarter, but the Tar Heels continued to fight and went up by one, 59-58, on a jumper by Todd-Williams with 4:19 to play. In the final five minutes of the game, neither team led by more than two (Louisville with 3:12 to play) and Carolina was never up by more than one. After a Kelly jumper put Carolina up 64-63 with 23 seconds to play, Hailey Van Lith answered to give Louisville the advantage again. Todd-Williams then delivered the final points of the game from the foul line, where the Tar Heels were 15-20 for the night.

“We just beat a really, really good basketball team,” Banghart said. “It’s the signature win we’ve been waiting for.”

The Tar Heels had lost eight in a row to Louisville, with Carolina’s most recent win over the Cardinals coming in the 2008 NCAA Sweet 16.

Next up for UNC is a trip to Tallahassee, Fla., where the Tar Heels will take on Florida State Sunday at noon. It’s the first of back-to-back road games down the stretch before Carolina wraps up the regular season on Feb. 27 back at Carmichael against Duke.