Orange Crushed: No. 6 UNC Spoils Boeheim’s Return, Beats Syracuse 84-73

Coming off its first true road win of the season on Monday against Florida State, the No. 6 UNC men’s basketball team did it again Saturday night at the Carrier Dome—defeating the Syracuse Orange 84-73 in the midst of an emotionally charged atmosphere.

The Tar Heels jump to 15-2 this season after the victory, with each of the team’s losses coming in its first two road games of the season—at Northern Iowa and at Texas.

UNC also moves to 4-0 in the ACC for the first time in the Roy Williams era after outlasting the Orange on a night that marked a pair of returns.

Not only did Williams and the Tar Heels get junior forward Kennedy Meeks back from a bruised knee, Syracuse got its Hall-of-Fame head coach, Jim Boeheim, back from a nine-game suspension for NCAA infractions.

“I was glad to see him back,” Williams said about Boeheim. “There’s no question I think it gave their crowd a huge emotional lift, and their team as well. But we were lucky the ball went in for us.

“When I saw that his first game back was gonna be against the University of North Carolina I wasn’t the happiest guy in the world.”

With an announced crowd of over 26,000 people, it was the largest attendance recorded at a college basketball game this year. The home crowd was given a lift by senior sharpshooter Trevor Cooney, who followed a script commonly used by UNC’s opponents this year—hitting five three-pointers and scoring 27 points.

Syracuse held a six-point lead with just over seven minutes to play, but the frontcourt duo of Brice Johnson and Isaiah Hicks overcame just three points from Marcus Paige to drop the Orange to 10-7 on the year and 0-4 since conference play began.

“We were able to send ‘em home early with the great way we played in the second half,” Johnson said. “It was a great feeling for us to be able to get a win in this fantastic arena.”

Closing out games was a major problem for the Tar Heels both last season and in the team’s two losses this year.

But UNC adjusted to Syracuse’s zone defense in the second half on Saturday, with Johnson consistently finding holes on his way to a career-high 8 assists to go along with his 16 points. Hicks was the recipient of many of those passes, ending the game with 21 points as Meeks was limited to just 14 minutes in his first game back.

“That was something Brice had seen,” Hicks said. “He was like, ‘You know what? You stay there [down low], and let me go get the ball. Be ready to catch it.’

“I gotta give that to Brice,” he added.

Justin Jackson added 16 points despite battling a fever earlier in the day, and Joel Berry chipped in 14 as the Tar Heels find themselves clicking on all cylinders at the moment—no matter where they play.

That should be a good sign for the team moving forward, especially looking back at the last time UNC visited the Carrier Dome—a 57-45 loss in 2014 that Williams still hasn’t let go of.

“Two years ago we came up here and they beat us by 806 or whatever it was,” the coach said. “[Tonight] we made some mistakes. We did some dumb things. But we also made some very good basketball plays.”

Now with its full roster finally healthy–and a demonstrated ability to finish on the road–this particular Tar Heel squad has the potential to take its current eight-game winning streak and turn it into the school’s record 30th ACC regular season championship–and potentially even more.

“We’re ready to take the big step,” Hicks said. “We want to be the last team playing. But we gotta start now. We can’t wait ’til later.”

Up Next:

Rivalry week is upon us, as the Tar Heels will have a full seven days to prepare for next Saturday’s home game against the NC State Wolfpack (10-5).

Game Notes:

• Cooney put together another monster performance after lighting the Tar Heels up for 28 points last season at the Smith Center.
• Brice Johnson has set career-highs in points, rebounds, and assists this week.
• In his first game action since the loss to Texas on Dec. 12, Meeks scored eight points.

 

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