UNC Women’s Basketball: Tar Heels off to 2-0 start
By Zack Pearson
The Tar Heels Women’s Basketball team won their home opener on Friday night over Kent State as they start the season 2-0.
The North Carolina men’s basketball team isn’t the only one off to a hot start on the campus of Chapel Hill at 2-0. The women’s basketball team is also off to a 2-0 start on the early season.
UNC opened up the 2018-19 season with a big road win over Elon, 100-69 with six players scoring in double-figures. Junior Shayla Bennett led all scorers with 19 points and added 7 assists to her stat line.
The Tar Heels led by just one after the first quarter but opened up an 11-point halftime lead by out-scoring the Phoenix 22-12 in the second quarter.
From there, it was smooth sailing for the Tar Heels who helped spoil the opening of Elon’s new basketball center before the men had a chance to do so.
Following that win over Elon, the Tar Heels returned to Chapel Hill for their home opener against Kent State on Friday night.
But unlike the game against Elon, this one was a little closer.
UNC jumped out to a 25-14 lead after one quarter at Carmichael Arena before Kent State trimmed the lead to 1 going into halftime at 36-35. A big second quarter for Kent State kept them in the game and prevented it from being ugly early.
Both teams struggled in the third quarter with Kent State scoring just 7 points and UNC scoring 12 but the Tar Heels were able to pull away with a 25-point fourth quarter to win the game 73-60 and improve to 2-0.
Paris Kea had a game-high 25 points and had a big four-point play with UNC trailing 52-50 early in the fourth quarter. After the play, UNC took a 54-52 lead and never looked back.
Janelle Bailey finished the game with 13 points and Stephanie Watts had all 9 of her points in the fourth quarter to help seal it for the Tar Heels.
Next. Tar Heels rout Elon to move to 2-0. dark
UNC returns to action Wednesday morning at 11 a.m. at Carmichael Arena as they will host VCU.