UNC vs NC State ACC women’s basketball game: Who won? Score?

Raleigh

N.C. State rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to emerge with a 77-66 overtime win over North Carolina Thursday in Reynolds Coliseum.

The Wolfpack (19-8, 8-7 ACC) had not led in the game since it was 29-28 in the second quarter, but scored the first seven points of overtime — including Jakia Brown-Turner’s fourth 3-pointer — and powered its way to a win. Brown-Turner scored a game-high tying 18 points before fouling out with 1:16 left.

Deja Kelly led Carolina with 18 points.

UNC (18-8, 9-6) did not score a basket in overtime until 20 seconds remained, missing its first seven shot attempts from the floor.

Carolina seemed to be cruising to a victory, up 55-45 when Paulina Paris completed a three-point play with 4:15 left in regulation. But the Pack’s press was finally able to speed the Heels up, forcing two turnovers and otherwise luring them into rushed shots.

The result was a furious rally — one that saw a little luck when Brown-Turner had a 3-pointer take a high bounce, but still roll in the basket. Brown-Turner’s next 3 with 31 seconds left didn’t need a generous bounce and pulled the Pack to 61-60.

UNC guard Kayla McPherson, who did not play the first meeting, made one of two free throws with 17.4 seconds left, which left an opening for the Pack to tie it on Aziaha James’ layup four seconds later.

James seemed poised to be the hero when she stripped the ball from McPherson and was headed for a layup. But UNC’s Deja Kelly, trailing from behind, contested the play enough to cause James to miss it.

With 1.5 seconds left, Carolina tried an inbounds pass to Teonni Key in the post, but it sailed out of bounds, giving the Pack the ball back with 1.2 seconds. State couldn’t get a shot off, as its play for Saniya Rivers to get a backdoor lob was broken up by Key.

Carolina started the second half with a 9-1 spurt to wrestle its biggest lead of the game at 39-30 when Alexandra Zelaya drilled a 3-pointer.

The Pack seemed a bit discombobulated offensively not only missing their first five shots from the floor, but twice in those early possessions found themselves scrambling in the final seconds to avoid a shot clock violation.

They didn’t make a field goal until midway through the third quarter when Jada Boyd made just their second 3-pointer of the game.

Leading scorer Diamond Johnson, who averaged 12.8 points per game, epitomized State’s struggles offensively. Johnson needed just seven points to reach 1,000 for her career. But she never found a rhythm and finished with just two points on 1-for-10 shooting including misfiring on six 3-pointers.

The Pack scored just two points in transition during the first meeting in Chapel Hill. They jumped out on the break in the first quarter outscoring UNC 8-0 in fast break points and finishing with a 32-7 advantage.

Carolina didn’t have a basket on the break until McPherson stole an intended handoff dribble from Rivers and took it the length of the court for a layup with 27 seconds left that gave the Heels a 30-29 halftime lead.