UConn head coach Geno Auriemma directs his team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against North Carolina in Greensboro, N.C., Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
FORT WORTH, Texas — For the first time in four years, UConn women’s basketball is playing the Sweet 16 only one time zone to the left instead of two.
The No. 1 overall seeded Huskies take on No. 4 North Carolina Friday evening in Fort Worth, Texas.
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UConn has made 32 straight Sweet 16 appearances and will look to advance to its third straight, and 30th total, Elite Eight. The Huskies are 29-3 all-time in the Sweet 16, including their most recent loss to Ohio State in the 2023 regional semifinal.
The winner of Friday’s matchup will face the winner of No. 6 Notre Dame-No. 2 Vanderbilt in Sunday’s Elite Eight for a chance to advance to next weekend’s Final Four in Phoenix.
UConn is 9-5 all-time against UNC. The two teams last met on Nov. 15, 2024, in Greensboro when Geno Auriemma tied Tara VanDerveer with his 1,216th career win by defeating the Tar Heels 69-58. UNC last defeated the Huskies on Jan. 15, 2007, winning 82-76 in Chapel Hill. Friday’s meeting marks their third straight season facing one another after the Huskies faced the Tar Heels at Mohegan Sun Arena in 2023.
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This is the teams’ second-ever meeting in the NCAA Tournament. They first met in the Big Dance in the 1994 Elite Eight, which UNC won 81-69.
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The Huskies advance to this year’s regional semifinal by blitzing No. 9 Syracuse, 98-45, Monday night in Storrs. Azzi Fudd stole the show with a career-high tying 34 points, thanks to a career-high tying eight made 3-pointers.
On Wednesday, Fudd and sophomore Sarah Strong were named two of the top four finalists for the Naismith Player of the Year award. Strong was also a top four finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, while Auriemma is a finalist for the Naismith Coach of the Year.
Fudd enters Friday’s matchup 20 points away from moving up to No. 21 on UConn’s all-time scoring list. The graduate guard currently sits at No. 23 with 1,656 and could pass both Kia Nurse (1,674) and Shea Ralph (1,678) on Friday. Fudd (113) is also just five made triples away from entering the top three on UConn’s single-season made 3-pointers list. She needs six to pass Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (2012-2013) for No. 3 and seven to pass Katie Lou Samuleson (2016-2017) for No. 2. Mosqueda-Lewis holds the No. 1 spot with 121 during the 2014-15 season.
About North Carolina
The Tar Heels are playing in their second straight Sweet 16 and third regional semifinals since 2022. UNC advanced to Friday’s game after beating No. 5 Maryland, 74-66, in the second and No. 13 Western Illinois, 82-51, in the first round.
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UNC lost to Louisville in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals yet finished third in the conference standings in the regular season.
Senior forward Nyla Harris, a transfer from Louisville, leads UNC with 11.5 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Senior guard Indya Nivar is second in the ACC with a team-best 2.6 steals per game, while redshirt sophomore Ciera Toomey is fourth in the conference with 1.5 blocks per game.
The Tar Heels also picked up sophomore guard Elina Aarnisalo in the portal out of UCLA. Aarnisalo averaged 5.1 points and 3.4 assists per game with the Bruins, including finishing with five points and one rebound against the Huskies in last year’s Final Four.
This year, Aarnisalo is averaging 10.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists with UNC. Most recently against Maryland, she scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds in 39 minutes.
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Despite losing point guard Reniya Kelly to injury in February, UNC won 14 ACC games this season, marking its most under head coach Courtney Banhart and the program’s most since the 2012-13 season.
While UNC finished fourth in the ACC with an average of 75.6 points per game, it was second in win margin (16.6) and scoring defense (limiting opponents to 58.9 points per game). The Tar Heels’ offense shot 45.6 percent, including making a league-best 8.3 3-pointers per game. Their defense held opponents to a league-best 36.5 shooting clip and a second-best 27.9 3-point field goal percentage.
This is Banghart’s seventh season coaching UNC.
Connecticut Connections: After spending the first 10 years of her living aboard in Spain, Strong spent the rest of her childhood in Durham, N.C., which is about a 25-minute drive northeast of UNC’s campus in Chapel Hill. … UNC assistant coach Cory McNeil spent three seasons as an associate head coach at Hartford under his wife and former Hawks’ head coach Kim McNeill.
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No. 1 UConn vs. No. 4 UNC
What:
Where: Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas
When: Friday at 5 p.m. ET
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Records:
Radio:
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