North Carolina Tar Heels (18-4, 6-3 ACC) at California Golden Bears (18-3, 6-2 ACC)
Berkeley, California; Thursday, 10 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: No. 15 North Carolina visits No. 19 Cal after Maria Gakdeng scored 21 points in North Carolina’s 86-84 loss to the Florida State Seminoles.
The Golden Bears are 11-0 in home games. Cal has a 16-3 record against teams over .500.
The Tar Heels have gone 6-3 against ACC opponents. North Carolina is 0-1 in one-possession games.
Cal makes 46.4% of its shots from the field this season, which is 11.7 percentage points higher than North Carolina has allowed to its opponents (34.7%). North Carolina averages 8.2 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.1 more made shots on average than the 5.1 per game Cal allows.
The Golden Bears and Tar Heels meet Thursday for the first time in conference play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kayla Williams is averaging 11.8 points, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals for the Golden Bears. Ioanna Krimili is averaging 13.9 points over the last 10 games.
Lexi Donarski is shooting 40.8% from beyond the arc with 2.4 made 3-pointers per game for the Tar Heels, while averaging 10 points. Alyssa Ustby is shooting 49.1% and averaging 12.1 points over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Golden Bears: 8-2, averaging 70.8 points, 35.5 rebounds, 14.4 assists, 5.0 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 47.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 63.6 points per game.
Tar Heels: 8-2, averaging 73.4 points, 35.4 rebounds, 15.8 assists, 8.1 steals and 4.2 blocks per game while shooting 43.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 58.1 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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