TAR HEEL GAME NOTES

The Tar Heels are coming off their first back-to-back defeats in more than a year, since losing to Virginia 105-100 in triple overtime on Jan. 15, 1998, and at Maryland 84-62 on Jan. 18, 1998. Carolina, which lost to Duke last Friday and at Georgia Tech on Sunday, has not lost three games in a row since the end of the 1995-96 season.

Nikki Teasley's 15 assists against Georgia Tech established a UNC single-game record. The old mark of 14 was set by Emily Johnson Murphy, now the team's director of basketball operations, on Jan. 20, 1990, against Duke.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Record: 19-4 overall (6-3 ACC) 
Head coach: Sylvia Hatchell 
Alma mater: Carson-Newman, 1974 
Record at UNC: 260-129 (13th year) 
Career record: 532-209 (24th year) 
Assistant head coach: Andrew Calder 
Assistant coaches: Ann Hancock, Shannon Spencer 
Current ranking: #14 AP, #10 USA Today 

Florida State Seminoles

Record: 6-12 (1-8 ACC) 
Head coach: Sue Semrau 
Alma mater: UC-San Diego, 1985 
Record at Florida State: 15-30 (2nd year) 
Career record: same 
Assistant coaches: Theresa Gernatt, Angie Johnson, Leslie Davis 
Current ranking: not ranked 
1997-98 record: 9-18 (5-11 ACC) 

On the Air: Radio - Tar Heel Sports Network; Flagship station: 1360 - WCHL (Play-by-play: Stephen Gates)

The Rivalry:

North Carolina leads the series 5-14 and has won 11 of the past 12 meetings. Florida State's last win over the Tar Heels was on Feb. 9, 1996, when the Seminoles won 73-64 in Tallahassee.

The teams went into overtime in their first meeting of the 1998-99 season before North Carolina pulled out a 112-101 win in Tallahassee on Dec. 5. It was UNC's highest scoring game since the 1996-97 season and the tenth-highest in the NCAA this season.

Sophomore Nikki Teasley led the Tar Heels with a career-high 32 points in 42 minutes of play while Juana Brown scored 28 points, also a career-high, and Chanel Wright scored 26.

The Tar Heels trailed by six with 21 seconds to play before Brown hit a three-pointer then stole the ball on Florida State's next possession. A three by Teasley tied the game with 13 seconds to play and UNC outscored FSU 18-7 in overtime.

 UNC    Head to Head              FSU
19-4    record                   6-12      
.437    fg %                     .431      
.411    opponent fg %            .446
.308    3 pt   fg %              .217
.287    opponent 3 pt fg %       .330
 4.9    3 pt fg per game          1.9
15.9    3 pt attempts per game    8.9
.671    free throw %             .573
44.5    rebound average          39.9
+2.8    rebound margin           -0.2
85.0    points per game          75.1
69.3    opponent points per game 78.3

Last time out for UNC:

The Tar Heels suffered their second-straight ACC loss on Sunday, 91-84 at Georgia Tech. On Friday night in Chapel Hill, Carolina lost 93-71 to Duke. The losses were the first back-to-back in over a year, since the Tar Heels lost to Virginia 105-100 in triple overtime on Jan. 15, 1998, and at Maryland 84-62 on Jan. 18, 1998.

Against Georgia Tech, UNC shot 46 percent and won the rebounding battle 40-37 but turned the ball over 26 times. Niesha Butler led the Jackets with 29 points and Danielle Donehew added 27 on seven three-pointers.

All five Tar Heel starters scored in double figures, led by Nikki Teasley's 18. Carolina was without guard Juana Brown, who aggravated a sprained ankle during Friday's game and was unable to play.

Brown day-to-day with ankle sprain

Juana Brown, a sophomore guard, was diagnosed on Monday with a midfoot strain and an ankle sprain and listed as day-to-day for the FSU game. X-rays to the area proved negative and since Monday she has been considered probable for the matchup with the Seminoles.

Brown initially injured her left foot and ankle in the Jan. 18 game at Virginia, then aggravated the injury during the Jan. 22 game against Duke. For the season, she is averaging 14.0 points and had started every game until Sunday's.

Scouting the Seminoles:

Sophomore Brooke Wyckoff leads Florida State in both scoring (14.7) and rebounding (8.2). The team is without junior Latavia Coleman, who averaged 20.8 points per game before suffering a season-ending knee injury in December. The team opened 5-5 with Coleman and is 1-7 since losing her.

Quite a crowd:

Friday's game against Duke drew a Carmichael Auditorium capacity crowd of 10,000, the largest ever at a North Carolina women's home game and the fourth-largest in ACC history. The Tar Heels' previous high in attendance (and the previous No. 4 ACC crowd) was 9,450, set Feb. 5, 1995, against Virginia.

High (scoring) Heels:

The Tar Heels' scoring average of 85.0 points per game is the highest in the ACC and seventh-highest in the country. Three times this season Carolina has scored 100 or more points and only three times*in losses to UCLA (86-68), N.C. State (87-70), and Duke (93-71)*has UNC failed to score at least 75 points.

Lights + camera = action for Brown:

Television may add 10 pounds to most people, but for sophomore guard Juana Brown it adds nine points. Brown is averaging 20 points in the seven Tar Heel games that have been televised this season, compared with 11.4 in the 14 that haven't and 14.3 for all 21 games. With cameras there to capture the action, she's shooting 56.1 percent from three-point range and is averaging 3.3 three-pointers per TV game.

Three times this season Brown has led the team in scoring, all in televised games. Most recently, she hit four second-half threes to lead the team with 20 points in a 79-68 win over Virginia (Home Team Sports) on Jan. 18. She was also the leading scorer with 27 points against Kansas (ESPN2) on Nov. 15 and 26 points against Alabama (Fox Sports South) on Dec. 20.

Brown, who is from Memphis, earned a reputation last season as the team's toughest defender. This year, she has broadened her repertoire. She earned ACC Player of the Week honors in the first week of the season after averaging 22 points in wins over Akron and Kansas.

Against Florida State on Dec. 5 (Sunshine Network, incidentally), she scored a career-high 28 points and hit one of two three-pointers that closed a six-point gap in the game's final 30 seconds. Against Alabama, she hit six three-pointers, all in the first half.

Brown has hit 34 three-pointers this season, already double last year's total. She put extra work into her shooting over the summer, aiming to become more of an offensive presence, and it looks as though her additional hours in the gym are paying off. Particularly when there's a television audience looking on.

Watching the polls:

After two losses in a three-day span, North Carolina fell to 14th in the AP poll, the team's first time out of the top 10 all season. UNC is 10th in the USA Today/ESPN poll, the lowest since the preseason poll.

Week         AP   USA Today
preseason    10      7
11/16         5      7   
11/23         5      5          
11/30         9      8    
12/7          7      7
12/14         7      6
12/21         6      6
12/28         6      6
1/4           6      6
1/11          7      6
1/18          7      6
1/25         14     10

Teasley in the lead:

As she did last year, Nikki Teasley leads the Tar Heels in assists with 5.7 per game. This year, however, she is also leading the team in scoring with 15.7 points per game.

Teasley has been the team's high scorer nine times this season. Against Florida State on Dec. 5, she hit the three-pointer that tied the game at 94-94 with 13 seconds to play and forced the overtime, then scored seven points in overtime as UNC pulled away to win 112-101. She scored a career-high 32 points in that game and earned ACC Player of the Week honors the following Monday.

Teasley also leads the team, and the conference, in steals with 65. That total is already eight more than she stole all of last year and puts her on pace to earn a place among UNC's top-10 season totals for steals.

Teasley's 15 assists against Georgia Tech were a career high and a school record. She is tied with three other players for the best single-game assist total in the NCAA this season.

Wright moves into 9th:

Upon hitting a three-pointer with 4:42 left to play against Hampton on Dec. 31, senior Chanel Wright moved onto UNC's top 10 alltime scoring chart. Her 13 points in that game bumped her career total up to 1,556, surpassing the 1,551 points scored by 10th-place Kathy Wilson from 1985-88.

Her total now stands at 1,661, ninth overall and 55 points behind eighth-place Marion Jones.

Wright, who also celebrated her 21st birthday on the day she moved into 10th place, is averaging 14.7 points per game. A preseason pick for All-ACC honors and a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year award, she boasts a career scoring average of 14.3. This season, she has established new career highs for scoring (33 against St. John's) and rebounding (11 against Kansas).

North Carolina Career Scoring

 1. Tracy Reid (1995-98)         2,200
 2. Tonya Sampson (1991-94)      2,143
 3. Charlotte Smith (1992-95)    2,094
 4. Pam Leake (1983-86)          2,001
 5. Tresa Brown (1981-84)        1,931
 6. Kathy Crawford (1980-83)     1,806
 7. Dawn Royster (1984-87)       1,778
 8. Marion Jones (1994-97)       1,716
 9. Chanel Wright (1996-99)      1,661
10. Bernie McGlade (1977-80)     1,604

Welcome back to the team:

Tracy Reid, Carolina's alltime leading scorer, will work with the team this semester as a student assistant coach while enrolled in classes to finish up her undergraduate degree in communications. Reid, who played for the Tar Heels from 1995-98, earned WNBA Rookie of the Year honors last summer while playing for the Charlotte Sting. While at UNC, she was named ACC Player of the Year in both 1997 and 98.

Barksdale does it all:

Sophomore forward LaQuanda Barksdale, who averaged 10 minutes a game last season backing up All-American Tracy Reid, has made the most of her expanded role. Starting at forward, Barksdale is averaging 13.2 points and 8.6 rebounds. She set new career highs in scoring in consecutive games with 22 points against Hampton and then 26 against Wake Forest two days later. Against Hampton, she hit her first eight field goal attempts and also grabbed 11 rebounds. At Wake Forest, she was 10-for-17 from the field in the return to her hometown of Winston-Salem and also added six rebounds and three blocks.

She has totaled seven double-doubles and is tied with 6-6 N.C. State center Summer Erb for the most this season. Her standout performances include a 16 point, 19 rebound outing against Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Her boards (9 offensive) in that game tied a Hart Recreation Center record. Against Virginia on Jan. 18, she had a double-double before halftime and went on to total 17 points and 15 rebounds for the game.

Diagnostic surgery for Davis:

Senior center Natasha Davis underwent diagnostic arthroscopic surgery on her right knee Jan. 21st and is expected to resume practicing with the team in approximately three weeks.

Davis had been experiencing pain and weakness in her knee since a fall during a game in mid-December. The surgery, performed by Dr. Tim Taft, Director of Sports Medicine at UNC, revealed bruising of the bone in Davis' knee. The injury did not need to be surgically repaired and is expected to require several weeks of rehabilitation.

Busy schedule:

The Tar Heels played 16 games in November and December, more than any other Division I women's team in the country and more than any Tar Heel team had ever played before the start of the new year.

Upping the total were four exempt games -- one in the State Farm Tip-off Classic and three in the Rainbow Wahine Classic, plus two December conference games.