The North Carolina women’s basketball team will begin the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Albuquerque, N.M., where the No. 5 seeded Tar Heels will take on No. 12 Fresno State.
“This group is extremely excited to start the tournament and compete for a national championship,” coach Sylvia Hatchell said in a press release.
“I think we are peaking at the right time. The players have come together down the stretch and they have shown that they are completely focused on the goal of winning a championship, and that starts Saturday against Fresno State.”
The Tar Heels (26-8) won their first and only national championship in 1994, when Hatchell’s team defeated Louisiana Tech 60-59 in Richmond, Va. But lately, the Tar Heels have failed to make it far in the postseason.
After a disappointing regular season campaign in 2009-10, the No. 10 seeded Tar Heels lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Gonzaga.
Redshirt senior Jessica Breland is the only current Tar Heel who has come close to a national championship, when the then-freshman’s squad made it to the Final Four before falling to Tennessee.
The Tar Heels began the 2010-11 campaign strong, going 14-0 before suffering their first loss to Georgia Tech, but the tide turned later in the season when North Carolina went on a four-game losing streak in a two-week span in February.
Staring at a chance for redemption, UNC sailed through the first three rounds of the ACC tournament before falling to No. 6 Duke in the championship game.
Fresno State, which competes in the Western Athletic Conference, finished the regular season 25-7. On Saturday, the Bulldogs beat Louisiana Tech in a two-point thriller to earn the WAC Tournament championship and solidify a spot in the 2011 NCAA tournament. Freshman guard Bree Farley scored in the final three seconds of the game to earn the conference title for the Bulldogs.
