No. 4 seed North Carolina is without junior guard Reniya Kelly as the Tar Heels play No. 13 seed Western Illinois Friday, March 20 in the first round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
The 5-foot-7 junior guard has missed the team’s last nine games before Friday and 10 of the team’s 33 games overall this season. But she has started all but one of the 23 games in which she played.
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Kelly, who is averaging 6.1 points, had a career-high 24 points in North Carolina’s 73-62 victory over Miami on Jan. 15.
But on Feb. 5, the last game in which she played, Kelly was scoreless after shooting 0-for-6 from the floor in a 53-44 win against Clemson. She missed the team’s next nine games.
North Carolina had high hopes for Kelly, who was rated by ESPN as the sixth-best point guard and 30th-best player overall in the high school 2023 class.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: North Carolina’s Reniya Kelly out as women’s March Madness starts
