Nyla Brooks Hits Five 3s as No. 23 North Carolina Routs NC Central 109-40 in Home Opener

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Ten days, two ranked opponents, one trip to Paris and zero wins. North Carolina finally got to come home, and the Tar Heels played like a team that had been waiting a long time to see its own gym.

No. 23 North Carolina buried NC Central 109-40 on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Carmichael Arena, its first win of the season after losses to Oklahoma and No. 1 South Carolina. Nyla Brooks scored 17 points on five 3-pointers, freshman Kate Harpring added 16 with five rebounds, five assists and three steals, and transfer Achol Akot made 7 of 9 shots for 15 points and seven assists. Twelve Tar Heels scored, and the bench put up 40.

Here is the official box score (opens in a new tab) and UNC's game preview (opens in a new tab) with the series history.

A three-point scare, then a flood

NC Central actually landed the first punch. Eboni Clay, one of two Eagles on the MEAC preseason watch list, hit a 3 at 9:37 of the first quarter for a 3-0 lead. That was the only time all night the visitors were ahead, and it lasted less than a minute.

Akot answered with a layup off a Reniya Kelly feed at 8:46, then put UNC in front for good with a 3 at 8:06. Brooks followed with a 3 at 7:24, and the Tar Heels were up 8-3 on an eight-point burst. From there it turned into a layup line. UNC kept running off misses and turnovers, and it led 30-11 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter was where the game stopped being a contest. UNC scored the first 10 points of the period to go up 40-11, and NC Central did not make a field goal until Victoria Morris scored on a layup with 5:59 left in the half. That basket was the only one the Eagles made in the quarter. They went 1 for 12 from the floor, scored four points, and went to the locker room down 54-15.

The third quarter was UNC's most productive, 31 points, and the lead grew to 85-31 by the end of it. UNC still won the fourth quarter 24-9. The Tar Heels' largest lead was the final margin, 69 points.

Brooks finds the range, Harpring finds everything else

Brooks, who hit four 3s against South Carolina, kept the hot hand at home. The sophomore went 5 for 10 from deep and 2 for 2 at the line for 17 points in 20 minutes. She came into the night with a 15-game streak of games with a made 3, according to UNC's pregame notes, so the first one pushed it to 16 and the next four were extra.

Harpring did not need to score 20 to be the most complete player on the floor. The freshman, who came to Chapel Hill as 247Sports' No. 1 recruit in the class and the 2026 Naismith high school player of the year, went 7 of 13 from the field and 2 of 4 from 3. She also had five rebounds, five assists and three steals with only one turnover in 20 minutes. She led UNC with 21 points in her debut against Oklahoma, and this was a different kind of good: fewer shots, more of everything else.

Akot was the most efficient starter. The senior forward, who transferred in from Oklahoma State after shooting 63.3 percent there last season, made 7 of 9 shots, including the 3 that gave UNC the lead for good. Her seven assists led the team, and she did not commit a turnover in 24 minutes. Her one steal leaves her two away from 100 for her career, based on the count in UNC's pregame notes.

Sophomore center Blanca Thomas scored 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting, including a 3, made 3 of 4 free throws and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. That is four more points than the career high of eight listed in UNC's pregame notes. Kelly, the senior co-captain, ran the offense in 17 minutes and finished with nine points on 3 of 4 shooting and four assists.

The bench gets its reps

With the game decided by halftime, Courtney Banghart got the kind of extended look at her rotation that the Paris and Charlotte games never allowed.

Junior guard Laila Hull led the reserves with 13 points in 15 minutes, hitting three 3s, and she added two blocks. Syracuse transfer Sophie Burrows took five shots, all of them 3s, and made three for nine points in 13 minutes. Virginia transfer Gabby White was everywhere in 20 minutes, with four points, five rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks.

Brazilian forward Taissa Queiroz added six points and four rebounds. Jordan Zubich scored four, senior co-captain Sydney Barker hit the only shot she took, a 3, and freshman center Noelle Bofia had a point, two rebounds and two steals in eight minutes. Stanford transfer Chloe Clardy went 0 for 3 in four minutes.

Thirteen Tar Heels played. Junior forward Ciera Toomey, the team's leading returning scorer and rebounder, does not appear in the box score, and UNC's game materials did not address it.

Numbers that tell the story

The shooting gap was wide. UNC made 40 of 72 shots, 55.6 percent, and 18 of 39 from 3, 46.2 percent. NC Central made 15 of 50, 30 percent, and only 2 of 12 from deep.

The ball movement gap was wider. North Carolina assisted on 30 of its 40 baskets and turned it over only five times. NC Central had three assists and 20 turnovers. UNC turned those turnovers into 30 points, while the Eagles scored two off UNC's mistakes.

The glass was a mismatch too. UNC outrebounded NC Central 45-21 and grabbed 18 offensive boards, which turned into 25 second-chance points. Add 22 fast-break points to the Eagles' zero and 38 points in the paint, and there was no part of the floor where NC Central could find relief.

Shrouq Amer was the bright spot for the Eagles, scoring 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and 4 of 4 free throws. Morris added nine, Clay seven and Keileen Thompson-Edwards five. Aaliyah Grant pulled down six rebounds off the bench. First-year coach Olivia Gaines, a 2015 South Carolina graduate, is now 2-3 at NC Central. The Eagles were picked sixth in the MEAC preseason poll.

What it means for UNC

The win was expected, but the context makes it useful. UNC opened with the earliest meeting against a ranked opponent in program history, a 91-79 loss to Oklahoma in Paris, then lost 84-39 to South Carolina in Charlotte, its earliest game ever against the nation's top-ranked team. That stretch knocked the Tar Heels from No. 12 to No. 23 in the latest AP poll.

The night also kept a few long streaks alive. UNC is now 10-0 all time against NC Central, all 10 of those wins coming in a row since 2007, and the pregame notes had the Tar Heels unbeaten against MEAC opponents and in home openers under Banghart. The 69-point margin falls short of the series record of 76, set in a 119-43 win on Nov. 29, 2024.

What mattered more was the shape of the win. UNC scored 39 points against South Carolina. Here, against a far less demanding defense, the offense showed what it wants to be: Harpring and Kelly creating, Akot and Thomas finishing inside, and four or five shooters spacing the floor. Thirty assists on 40 baskets is a good sign for a roster with four transfers and two freshmen still learning each other.

Up next

North Carolina, now 1-2, plays at Penn on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 4 p.m. ET at the Palestra, the first meeting between the programs. The Tar Heels then head to Orlando to face Texas Tech on Nov. 19 and Alabama on Nov. 21, and LSU visits Carmichael on Dec. 2.

For a team that spent its first week of the season answering hard questions, a 69-point home opener does not settle much. It does give the Tar Heels a win, a full rotation of minutes, and a reminder of how dangerous this group looks when the ball moves.

Sources: official box score and game center, UNC Athletics.

Photo: Nate Skvoretz/UNC Athletics (file photo from Nov. 3, 2025, vs. NC Central).