STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — A furious fourth-quarter rally by Stanford was not quite enough for the Cardinal to beat No. 15 North Carolina on Sunday at Maples Pavilion. Reniya Kelly scored half of her 10 points during a one-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter and the Tar Heels held on to win 69-67.
The Cardinal trailed by as many as 15 points, but rallied with a 14-3 run in the fourth quarter to tie the game 62-62 with less than four minutes left.
Grace Townsend hit from 3-point range to put North Carolina up by 12 points, 62-50, but Brooke Demetre scored at the basket to kickstart the Stanford run. Nunu Agara and Chloe Clardy each hit two free throws and Elena Bosgana drilled a 3-pointer from the wing to get the Cardinal within three before misfiring on a layup. Kennedy Umeh gathered the loose ball and tipped it in while drawing a foul. Her free throw with 3:52 left tied the game.
Kelly wasted no time with the Tar Heels’ answer, drilling a jumper just seven seconds later and followed that with a 3. Lexi Donarski added a layup to take a seven-point lead. Agara turned a three-point play and her layup with 37 seconds left made it 69-67, but missed a jumper to tie with three seconds left.
North Carolina (20-4, 8-3) and Stanford (11-10, 3-7), now Atlantic Coast Conference rivals, played for just the second time in the regular season. The Tar Heels reached the 20-win plateau for the 30th time in program history. This is just the third time in the last 24 seasons that the Cardinal have suffered 10 or more losses.
North Carolina plays at Clemson next Sunday. Stanford plays at No. 3 Notre Dame on Thursday.