GREENSBORO — North Carolina-based teams make up three of the top five seeds in the 2025 Ally ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament that kicked off this week in Greensboro.
The 14-game, 15-team conference tournament began on Wednesday afternoon inside First Horizon Coliseum with three first-round contests.
ACC regular season co-champion NC State (24-5, 16-2 ACC) — ranked seventh nationally — received the top seed in the tournament, while 11th-ranked Duke (23-7, 14-4 ACC) and 14th-ranked North Carolina (25-6, 13-5 ACC) were given the third and fifth seeds, respectively.
Sitting at last place in the conference standings, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (9-20, 2-16 ACC) were not included in the tournament.
On Friday at 1:30 p.m., NC State is set to face the winner of No. 8 seed Virginia Tech (18-11, 9-9 ACC) and No. 9 seed Georgia Tech (21-9, 9-9 ACC). The Wolfpack are riding a four-game winning streak after coming away with a share of the conference season crown, matching second-seeded Notre Dame (25-4, 16-2 ACC) in the ACC win column.
A recent Feb. 23 win over the Fighting Irish gave NC State the tiebreaking top seed for the tournament; Notre Dame came away with a 55-51 victory over the Wolfpack in last season’s ACC title game in Greensboro.
Coach Wes Moore said his NC State team has responded well to a shaky 4-3 start to the season, going on to win 20 of its next 22 games as senior guard Aziaha James (18 ppg, 4.9 rpg) leads the team in her best season yet.
“We find out that playing teams like that prepares you for the ACC and it prepares you for the postseason,” Moore said of his squad’s early-season losses to South Carolina, TCU, and LSU. “Any weaknesses you have, they’re going to expose them and you’re going to know early in the year what you better fix. All three of those teams ranked top 10 in the country, but it’s still tough. It can shake your confidence, and this group didn’t let it, so hopefully they learned a lot right there that you can overcome stuff.”
Over in Durham, coach Kara Lawson’s third-seeded Blue Devils are riding on three consecutive wins as they enter the tournament on a double-bye and look to face either No. 11 seed Stanford (16-13, 8-10 ACC), No. 14 seed Clemson (13-16, 6-12 ACC), or No. 6 seed Louisville (20-9, 13-5 ACC) on Friday 7:30 p.m.
Duke used recent double-digit wins over UNC and 22nd-ranked Florida State (23-7, 13-5 ACC) to climb up to the No. 5 seed in the ACC tournament, relying heavily on the play of forward Toby Fournier.
The sophomore has averaged 23 points and over seven rebounds in her past three performances.
“We’re so pleased to finish the week 2-0,” Lawson said after the Blue Devils’ 71-57 road win over the Seminoles in the regular-season finale. “We started the week knowing we had work to do if we wanted to move up in the standings, and playing two teams ahead of us in the standings was great motivation for us. I’m very proud of the effort of my players and the discipline that they showed.”
While NC State and Duke enter March on a hot streak, North Carolina is hoping to bounce back after losses to the Blue Devils and Virginia (18-11, 9-9 ACC). The fifth-seeded Tar Heels will challenge the winner of No. 13 seed Syracuse (12-17, 6-12 ACC) and No. 12 seed Boston College (15-16, 6-12 ACC) on Thursday at 11 a.m.
“We ran out of gas and we really couldn’t get out of playing tired in that second half,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said after her team’s recent loss to the Cavaliers.
For the fourth-straight game, North Carolina was without fifth-year forward Alyssa Ustby, while also dealing with the persisting absence of sophomore guard Reniya Kelly since Feb. 23. Banghart expressed hope about the pair returning for the postseason, despite the unknown nature of their unspecified injuries.
“We’ll get them as rested and healthy as we can, and then get right back to it,” the sixth-year Tar Heel coach said. “You look at who you’re going to play and then you game plan accordingly. We think we’ll be healthier by then, and that will help because then now you get more minutes that you can spread across with more options.”
The ACC tournament semifinals are set for noon and 2:30 p.m on Saturday, followed by a championship matchup scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.
