Georgia Tech vs No. 23 North Carolina | ACC | 1.18.24

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Behind 27 points from senior Deja Kelly, the UNC women's basketball team earned a 73-68 road win at Georgia Tech Thursday evening and with it the team's best start to Atlantic Coast Conference play in a decade. The No. 23 Tar Heels are now 13-5 overall and 5-1 in ACC play.
After playing three of the last four games on the road, Carolina returns home to Carmichael Arena to host No. 13 Louisville on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game.
Kelly's 27 points tied her career high set in Sunday's game as she topped 20 points for the third game in a row. She was 6-6 from the foul line in the final 22 seconds and 10-12 for the game. Senior Alyssa Ustby added 15 points, and Kelly and Ustby each handed out four assists.
Redshirt sophomore Teonni Key came off the bench for 10 points, her career high in ACC play. She hit her first five shots of the night and also grabbed five rebounds in 14 minutes of play.
The Tar Heels won the rebounding battle for the fourth game in a row, 32-30.
Carolina started the night 0-5 from the field, spotting the hosts a 4-0 lead. Kelly finally hit a jumper three minutes into the game to get the Tar Heels on the board, and she went on to score the first nine points for UNC. With the home team up by one at 10-9, Ustby made a layup to give Carolina the lead. After Tech tied, it, the Tar Heels got six in a row from Indya Nivar, Maria Gakdeng and Ustby to lead 17-11 heading into the second quarter.
Early in the period, Gakdeng scored three times in just over a minute to give Carolina a double-digit lead, 23-13 with 7:15 before halftime. The Jackets called a timeout and then answered with a 10-0 run to tie the score with just over three minutes until the half. They briefly took the lead, but Carolina was back on top by two at the break, 30-28.
The McCamish Pavilion lights went out briefly early in the third quarter, stopping play for a minute, but the Tar Heels shot lights-out throughout the period, hitting 60 percent of their shots for their best shooting percentage in a quarter in ACC play this season. Kelly was 2-2 from three-point range in the quarter (3-5 for the night) and the visitors took an eight-point lead into the fourth, 54-46.
A three-point play by Ustby and a coast-to-coast layup by Key off a steal put UNC up by 13 early in the fourth. The lead was eventually a game-high 14 on three occasions, the last on a Key jumper with 5:31 to play. But UNC didn't make another field goal after that, hanging on to win as Kelly scored the team's final eight points at the foul line. Key was 4-5 in the fourth quarter and Ustby 1-2 for the only fourth-quarter points that didn't come on free throws.
A four-point play by Tech's Rusne Augustinaite with 29 seconds to play cut the margin to three, and it was a two-point game after a three by Ines Noguero with 12 seconds remaining, but Kelly made her free throws for the win. Georgia Tech shot 63.6 percent in the fourth quarter and was 3-6 from three-point range. Tonie Morgan finished with 15 points and Kara Dun 14 to lead Georgia Tech (12-6, 3-3 ACC), which played without coach Nell Fortner, who was out with illness.
All eight players who saw action for the Tar Heels scored at least two points and grabbed at least two rebounds. As a team, Carolina had its best free throw shooting night of the season, finishing at 84.2 percent (16-19) after coming into the game averaging almost 20 points lower, 64.3.