North Carolina At Chapel Hill

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – North Carolina vs Oklahoma

The No. 24 North Carolina women’s basketball team trailed early but rallied to tie the game by halftime and then pulled away in the second half to beat Oklahoma 61-52 Tuesday night at the Spectrum Center. After the first game of the evening’s Jumpman Invitational lineup went into double OT, the Tar Heels tipped off after 10 p.m. and finished just after midnight to head into the holiday break at 8-4.

Senior guard Deja Kelly led UNC with 21 points, which boosted her past the 1,500-career-points milestone in her 100th game as a Tar Heel. Senior Alyssa Ustby registered her fifth double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Graduate student Lexi Donarski added 10, five of which came during a pivotal third quarter when Tar Heels outscored the Sooners 16-4.

After falling to Michigan this time last year in the inaugural Jumpman Invitational, the Tar Heels were determined to go into the holiday break on a better note this time. The start, however, didn’t look promising as the Sooners (6-4) raced to a 10-2 lead in the first two minutes of play. They led by nine, 23-14, late in the first quarter and were still up by seven heading into the second.

Oklahoma held a seven-point lead with 2:32 to play before halftime when the Tar Heels went on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 36-36. Kelly, still battling a stomach bug that had been with her for days, hit her first two shots of the night and already had seven points in the first quarter. She added another 11 in the second quarter, including seven of the team’s nine points in the run into halftime.

“Deja is a dog – that girl will do anything for her teammates and she knows how much she brings to our team,” Ustby said. “She’s pretty sick and so for her to come out here and play so selflessly and get to the basket and hold up her own was remarkable. I’m so proud of her and just so happy that she’s on my team.”

Kelly’s 18 first-half points put her at exactly 1,500 and made her the 25th player to reach that milestone in a Carolina uniform. She finished with 21 for her third 20-point game of the season and the 24th of her career.

After a tie at the break, UNC held Oklahoma to just four points in the third quarter to pull away for good. The Sooners were 2-19 from the field during the period and 4-31 in the second half, scoring 16 points total in the final 20 minutes.

Paulina Paris scored all nine of her points after halftime and Donarski scored seven of her 10. Carolina’s lead ballooned to 15 points on a layup by Paris with 7:11 remaining in the game. The final margin of nine points was the only time the game was in single digits after a Donarski three put the Tar Heels up by 12 with 4:25 to play in the third quarter.

OU’s first points of the game came on a three-pointer but the Sooners didn’t hit another one all night. They finished 1-26 from long range and shot 26.4 percent from the field overall, a low so far this season by a Carolina opponent. The Sooners’ Payton Verhulst finished with 15 point and Skylar Vann scored 10 to go with 12 rebounds.

UNC had a season-high 23 turnovers but won the rebounding battle 49-44 over Oklahoma, which came in ranked eighth in the nation in rebounds per game (47.7). The Sooners average 84.9 points per game, 14th in the nation, but were held to their season low in scoring.

The game was scheduled for 9:30 p.m., which already would have been the Tar Heels’ latest start of the season. It was pushed back around 35 minutes, finally beginning at 10:05 and ending a day later on Dec. 20th.

“You played on two calendar days,” coach Courtney Banghart said to Ustby after the game.

“How cool is that?!” Ustby replied.

The team can afford to enjoy the novelty, because the Tar Heels still have plenty of time to rest up. They won’t play again until they open Atlantic Coast Conference play on Dec. 31 with a home game against Clemson.