Brown Leads Tar Heels In Defeat of Seminoles

Juana Brown led the Tar Heels

(10-6, 4-3 in the ACC) with 21 points and shot

8-of-13 from the field and hit four

3-pointers.

Four Tar Heels, including leading ACC scorer LaQuanda Barksdale, scored in double digits. Barksdale also pulled down 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels, helping them win on the boards 36-33.

Florida State's Shinikki Whiting turned in 17 points in the losing effort. FSU fell to 11-5 overall and 3-3 in league play.

"We need to have better focus and play well enough to win, which we didn't have tonight," FSU coach Sue Semrau said. "I'm glad we're in this situation. Call me crazy, but we need to face the best in our conference right now and see what we are made of."

Florida State scored first, but then UNC jumped out to a 10-2 lead, behind two big three-pointers by Brown.

The Seminoles pulled to within three at 10-7 when Whiting, who led all scorers in the first half with 13 points, hit a trey at the 14:27 mark. UNC went on to score five straight to take its largest lead of eight points at 15-7 with 12:33 on the clock and led the remainder of the half.

The Seminoles opened the second half with a quick bucket and pulled to within a point three times within the first three minutes of the second half.

The Seminoles tied the game at 44-44 with 15:39 left in the game and took their first lead, since the opening minute of the game, at the 15:11 mark. Florida State went up five at 49-44 at the 13:12 mark, but UNC went on a 22-3 run and took a 66-52 lead with 5:22 remaining.

"The first half, I thought we played really sluggish," UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said.

"We couldn't get anything going offensively. In the second half, we got down by five and all of a sudden, it was like someone lit a fire under us and we started playing Carolina basketball."