Women's Basketball ACCtion: Sunday, March 15
North Carolina tunes up for NCAA Tournament with win over South Dakota.
Jessica Breland had a double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Tar Heels 75-69 win over South Dakota.

Jessica Breland had a double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Tar Heels 75-69 win over South Dakota.

March 15, 2009

UNC Tops South Dakota, 75-69
Cetera DeGraffenreid scored 19 points to help No. 11 North Carolina rally past South Dakota 75-69 on Sunday in a tougher-than-expected tune-up for the NCAA tournament.

Jessica Breland added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels (27-6), who added the game to the schedule to fill the annual two-week gap between the end of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and the NCAAs. North Carolina was coming off a 95-84 loss to No. 4 Maryland in the ACC semifinals last week, ending a run of four straight league tournament titles.

The only problem was the Coyotes (18-11) didn't play the role of the overmatched team despite the fact they're in their first year of Division I competition. They hit 10 of their first 13 3-pointers to take a 41-32 halftime lead, then stretched it to 15 points on a 3 from Annie Roche early in the second half.