UConn women’s basketball to play North Carolina at Mohegan Sun on Dec. 10

UConn women’s basketball will take on the North Carolina Tarheels at Mohegan Sun on Dec. 10 as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase, the organization announced Thursday.

The matchup will take place as part of a triple-header with Florida State battling UCLA and South Carolina facing off against Utah. Tip times and television information will be announced at a later date. UConn donors and season ticket holders will have a chance to purchase seats during a pre-sale while tickets will go on sale to the general public on Sept. 8.

This initial meeting between the Huskies and Tarheels is expected to be the first game of a pseudo-home-and-home series between the schools. While Mohegan Sun is technically a “neutral site”, it’s still in Connecticut and is only located roughly 45 minutes from Storrs. As a result, UConn will likely make a return trip to North Carolina for a similar “neutral site” game in the state — with Greensboro being the frontrunner to host.

“[UConn] called us to play them and they said, ‘We’d love to do a neutral game,’ and I said, ‘In. We’ll sign it today. We can’t wait. Where is the game?’” And they said it’s at Mohegan Sun. I said, ‘Woah, woah, woah — I don’t know if guys know this but I’m from up there (Manchester, New Hampshire). Is that 15 minutes or is that 20 minutes from campus? How far is that?’ They said it’s close but it’s not on their campus,” Banghart told the Tar Heel Show last August. “I said, ‘That is a home-and-home.’ So we’re happy to play it. Then we’ll do it a ‘neutral-site game.’ We’ll do it in Greensboro. Or we can play a home-and-home.”

“We’ll be doing a ‘neutral-site’ at Mohegan Sun next year and the following year, they’ll be coming to Greensboro — I hope,” she added. “They’ll be coming somewhere. We’re gonna promote Greensboro as our ‘neutral-site’ game to play them in a home-and-home environment.”

Under Banghart, UNC has established itself as a perennial top-25 program. Last season, the Tarheels reached the second round as a 6-seed before falling to 3-seed Ohio State by just two. They were ranked 20th in the final AP Poll of the season.

This will be the 13th all-time meeting between the schools, with UConn holding a 7-5 edge — including five-straight wins. They last played on Jan. 16, 2012 when the Huskies claimed a dominant 86-35 victory at Gampel Pavilion.

UConn now has six dates set on its schedule: Nov. 19 at Minnesota (for Paige Bueckers’ homecoming), the Cayman Islands Classic from Nov. 24-25 (opponents still TBA), Ball State on Dec. 6 (when Nika Mühl will face her younger sister, Hana), Louisville on Dec. 16 and now UNC on Dec. 10.

The Huskies will also continue series with Maryland and Notre Dame at home as part of an ongoing series while Carl Adamec reported they’ll also host Dayton — coached by former UConn forward Tamika Williams-Jeter. Alongside Minnesota, the Huskies will travel to face NC State, South Carolina and Texas.

UConn could also play a game in Toronto for Aaliyah Edwards’ homecoming. While nothing is official, Edwards hinted that it’ll happen.

“I’m gonna say we’re on the right track,” she said. “That’s all I’m gonna say.”