UNC Women’s Basketball: Tar Heels fall to Syracuse

UNC Women’s Basketball falls short to Syracuse 88-76 despite a third quarter spark by Janelle Bailey.

The UNC Women’s basketball team fell just short to Syracuse losing 88 to 76,  bringing Carolina to a three-game losing streak. Despite the tough loss, UNC kept a steady pace throughout the game, including an outstanding third quarter led by center Janelle Bailey.

Carolina outscored Syracuse 30 to 21 in the third quarter with Bailey scoring 14 points, including a stretch where she scored 10 straight points for UNC. Bailey ended up with 22 points and 5 rebounds in 33 minutes of action.

Along with Bailey’s amazing play, UNC had huge contributions from Stephanie Watts, who finished with 15 points, and Alyssa Utsby, who finished with 13 points. The major difference in this game came from rebounding, with Syracuse stacking up 50 total rebounds while Carolina ended up with only 36. UNC kept the pace scoring wise, shooting 43.8% from the field while Syracuse shot for 44%. The turnover battle stayed even as well with UNC ending with 16 while Syracuse turned the ball over 17 times.

UNC ended up getting torched in the 4th quarter 27 to 9, causing the Heels to suffer a sour ending defeat. Despite the defeat,  the team did prove that UNC can compete with some of the top schools in the nation by keeping the game competitive throughout the first three quarters before falling apart in the fourth.

You can catch the UNC Women’s Basketball team’s next game as they are set to face Notre Dame, Sunday  January 24th at 12 p.m. eastern time. Be sure to keep up with it KeepingitHeel for all UNC sports related news.