The North Carolina women’s basketball team is off to a hot start this season, thanks in large part to senior guard Eva Hodgson of Rindge.
The Tar Heels are 6-0 on the season and are ranked No. 8 in the AP women’s basketball poll; as UNC is also ranked No. 1 in the men’s basketball poll, Carolina is the only school with both teams in the top 10.
The UNC women played a pair of games in Portland over the weekend at the Phil Knight Invitational, where Hodgson and the Heels watched the men’s team play in their games before going out and winning their own.
“It almost becomes the expectation,” Hodgson said after leading Thursday’s 85-79 comeback win over host Oregon. “Once you see [the men] do it, you’re like, ‘We can’t be the one to lose today.’ It creates that atmosphere and it goes through Carolina athletics in general – from field hockey to soccer to whatever sport, there’s this expectation of going out and performing to the best of our abilities every night.”
Hodgson has been on a hot streak of her own over the past few games. The redshirt senior is averaging over 13 points per game on 43 percent three-point shooting along with four assists and three rebounds a game. Hodgson went off for 18 points (4-8 3PT) against James Madison and then scored a season-high 21 (5-7 3PT, 14 fourth-quarter points) in a 12-point comeback in the Phil Knight opener against Oregon, converting a four-point play midway through the fourth to give the Tar Heels a lead they’d never surrender.
Carolina won the invitational with another dramatic comeback Sunday, beating Iowa State 73-64 after trailing by as much as 17; Hodgson had 11 points with five assists and three steals.
Meanwhile, younger sister Sera is progressing well with the 3-3 UMaine women’s basketball team. The sophomore forward has worked her way into the Black Bears’ starting lineup and had a career day in the team’s 73-57 win over Niagara Saturday, scoring 22 points on 5-8 three-point shooting while going 5-5 from the free throw line.
■Lindsey Carey of Greenfield is having a good year at Western New England, averaging a team-high 11.8 ppg through six games so far. Carey scored a career-high 21 against Albertus Magnus on Nov. 17.
■Anthony Gauthier of Jaffrey is averaging a team-high 17 ppg for the NHTI men’s basketball team through six games.