After cruising to the Sweet 16 with two wins at home, the Stanford women’s basketball team heads north to Spokane, Wash. to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.
The Cardinal (31-2, 18-0 Pac-10) advanced to its 18th Sweet 16 in school history with an 86-59 victory over UC-Davis and a 75-49 win over St. John’s, but the Tar Heels (28-8, 8-6 ACC) present a tough test for Stanford as it attempts to reach its fourth consecutive Final Four.
The Heels are playing some of their best basketball of the season after knocking off Fresno State and Kentucky to reach their first Sweet 16 since the 2007-08 season.
North Carolina struggled at the end of the regular season, losing four consecutive conference games before catching fire in the ACC tournament, where it won three games to advance to the ACC championship game before losing to Duke.
The strong run was good enough to earn the Heels a No. 5 seed in the NCAA tournament despite their sixth-place finish in the ACC.
Senior guard Italee Lucas leads the Heels with 16.0 points per game, and senior forward Jessica Breland adds 12.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Additionally, head coach Sylvia Hatchell, in her 22nd year coaching the Heels, is a member of college basketball’s prestigious 800-win club, a group that Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer joined earlier this year.
Stanford heads into the game after completing its fourth-straight undefeated season at home, a new school record.
Junior forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike has been carrying the Card so far in this year’s tournament, scoring 22 points in both games.
Should Stanford advance past the Tar Heels, it would face either No. 7 seed Louisville or No. 11 seed Gonzaga, which would be playing on its home court after notching a surprising upset of No. 3 seed UCLA, 89-75, to advance to the Round of 16.
Stanford has not faced off against Louisville this season, but it did beat Gonzaga 84-78 back in November.
The Cardinal will take on North Carolina at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday in Spokane.