UNC women's basketball to enjoy NCAA home advantage

Home sweet home.

For the second year in a row, the North Carolina women’s basketball team will play its first game of the NCAA Tournament in Chapel Hill. UNC was announced as a No. 4 seed in the Greensboro region during Monday night’s selection show.

The Tar Heels will face No. 13 Liberty on Saturday morning, and if they win they will play host again, either to Ohio State or James Madison on Monday.

“It’s always important to have the chance to play at home,” said Coach Sylvia Hatchell in a statement after the bracket was revealed.

“The familiarity for our players is such an advantage and then being able to play in front of our fans is really, really big.”

Last season, when the Tar Heels opened at home, it was the crowd that helped propel them to consecutive single-digit wins against UT Martin and Michigan State.

“The best thing that could have happened for us is to play at home in front of our fans,” said junior guard N’Dea Bryant. “We’ll take it game-by-game and try to replicate what we did last year and hopefully make it one step further to the Final Four.”

The No. 1 seed in North Carolina’s portion of the bracket is South Carolina, whom the Tar Heels beat last season in the Sweet 16 in Stanford, California.

If UNC is able to win its first two games, the two teams could rematch in the Sweet 16 this season, only this time much closer to home.

Fifty-five minutes to be exact — that’s all it takes to get from Chapel Hill to the Greensboro Coliseum, UNC’s potential regional destination.

It wouldn’t be an unfamiliar area for the Tar Heels. On March 6, UNC made the drive for the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, a game it eventually lost 77-75 to Louisville in overtime.

Now if it can bounce its first two opponents, the team will be headed back.

“Having a chance to play in Greensboro down the road is a bonus,” said sophomore guard Jessica Washington.

“But we have work to do first before thinking about the Sweet 16.”

The first step on the road to such a rematch is the Flames, who won the Big South Tournament to secure their tournament berth.

Liberty shoots 75 percent from the free throw line, the 22nd-best mark in the nation. UNC, on the other hand, has struggled with adept foul-shooting teams, as it did with Louisville in the ACC Tournament.

But for a team hoping to go farther than it did last season — Stanford knocked the Tar Heels out a game before they reached the Final Four in 2014 — Liberty will be the first challenge standing in the way.

“I don’t know much about Liberty,” Hatchell said. “But we will soon enough.”

sports@dailytarheel.com