Save the best for last.

Caleb Love clearly believes in that mantra. For 37 minutes Monday night against Syracuse, UNC’s mercurial sophomore guard couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, with only seven points on 2-14 shooting. The Tar Heels and Orange were locked in a thriller at the Smith Center, and if Carolina were to win and keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive, Love had to step up.

And step up he did.

Love exploded for 14 clutch points in the late second half and overtime of Monday night’s 88-79 victory, effectively saving Carolina’s season and sending the Smith Center into a frenzy.

“Throughout the season, we’ve had some games where we have some mental lapses,” said Leaky Black on his Senior Night. “But I feel like this team, the ability to pull this one out just shows the maturity and the growth that we’ve had this year.”

The program began the night honoring seniors Ryan McAdoo and Black, as well as graduate Brady Manek. Per Carolina tradition, all three started the game, but the Tar Heels quickly found themselves behind amid the pomp and circumstance. The Orange jumped out to a 12-3 lead thanks to eight early points from Syracuse’s senior forward Cole Swider. It was just the beginning of a career night for the Villanova transfer.

The Tar Heels clawed back into the game with a flurry of three-pointers of their own. Love, R.J. Davis, Black and Manek each knocked down shots from outside, shooting Carolina in front, 35-28. Syracuse withstood the UNC run almost solely on the right hand of Swider, who scored 10 of the Orange’s final 12 points of the half. Carolina entered the locker room ahead 41-36, with Swider scoring 21 points and playing all 20 minutes of the half.

The six-foot, nine-inch Swider took advantage of the height mismatch against the six-foot, four-inch Love. The taller Black was busy guarding Syracuse’s leading scorer, Buddy Boeheim.

“I couldn’t cut Leaky in half,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “I tried to, and tried to put half of him on Buddy and half of him on Cole, but it just didn’t work.”

Syracuse began the second half much like the first, coming out hot with a 10-1 run. Three-pointers from Boeheim and Joseph Girard III kickstarted the run, before a layup from Swider and a putback from Bourama Sidibe gave Syracuse a 46-42 lead. Their lead would grow to five points at 50-45, before consecutive baskets by Manek tied the game again. That set off a chain of nip-and-tuck play which would last into bonus basketball time in Chapel Hill.

“At one point, I can’t even lie, in the second half with a minute left, I was not sure if we was gonna win that game,” said junior forward Armando Bacot.

Bacot was staring at a scoreboard which showed Syracuse leading, 71-70, with just a few precious ticks of the clock remaining in the game. If the clock struck zero with Carolina still trailing, it could also strike midnight on any NCAA Tournament hopes. The Orange had answers for every UNC jab, with Jimmy Boeheim, Buddy Boeheim and Swider each hitting big shots down the stretch. Five consecutive points from Swider turned a 63-60 UNC lead into a 65-63 Orange advantage, and another offensive putback from Sidibe gave Syracuse its 71-70 lead with 1:13 to go.

Manek missed a jumper on the other side, giving Syracuse the ball back with under a minute to go. After bleeding the clock down, the Orange faced an inbounds play on the baseline with four seconds on the shot clock and 15 seconds on the game clock. Black, who had temporarily switched onto the red-hot Swider, switched back to Buddy Boeheim for the play.

“I knew exactly what play they were gonna run,” Black said.

The senior’s prescience paid off, as Black bothered Boeheim on the inbounds pass, forcing a critical turnover and giving Carolina the ball back scot-free.

Davis called timeout to set up a play, telling the team to take the first good shot to come its way and pursue any possible offensive rebounds in the closing seconds.

“Against Syracuse’s zone, if you wait, and you try to shoot a shot up against the shot clock… it’s very difficult to get a good shot,” he said. “We talked about in the huddle, ‘Take the first available good shot.'”

Love, who had just hit his second three-pointer of the game on the previous possession, found the ball in his hands. Up to that point, it had been a shooting night to forget for the sophomore, but that didn’t stop him from chucking up a potential go-ahead three-pointer from well beyond the three-point line. It hit nothing but the bottom of the net.

In the frenzied Smith Center atmosphere, Syracuse quickly inbounded the ball against UNC’s scrambling defense. The Orange got it to their quickest player, Girard, who sprinted up court and fired up a mid-range jumper. He nailed it, tying the game at 73-73 with fewer than two seconds to go. Carolina wasn’t able to do anything with the remaining seconds, and the Smith Center crowd was treated to bonus basketball.

“That was ridiculous,” Bacot said of Love’s shot. “And he made it, though, so it was great and I was happy for him. I guess it just shows his toughness, just to even be able to take that shot while struggling. That was kind of gangster, I can’t lie.”

Love brought his suddenly hot shooting stroke into overtime, hitting another three-pointer in the middle of an 8-0 run to begin the extra period. Manek and R.J. Davis also added buckets in the run, and a Manek dunk gave Carolina its largest lead of the game at 83-74. Those were the last two points of a worthy Senior Night performance, in which Manek led the team with 22 points while playing 43 of a possible 45 minutes.

“I wish we could’ve had him for a lot more years,” Bacot said of Manek, echoing a sentiment his head coach has conveyed many times this season.

Love would score UNC’s final five points of overtime, the last three coming on a one-handed scoop shot from the hip, which somehow went in, plus the foul. He would make the succeeding free throw to give him an improbable 21 points.

“I never lost my confidence,” Love said. “It never wavered. My coaches and my teammates gave me the confidence to keep shooting, and knock it down. So that’s exactly what I did.”

Manek and Love led a balanced scoring effort, one which saw Bacot and Davis each put in 17 points. Though overshadowed by Love’s heroics, Davis quietly knocked down a team-high five threes on the night, while Bacot tied UNC’s school record with his 23rd double-double of the season, grabbing 18 rebounds. He’ll have a chance to break the record Saturday night in the regular-season finale at Duke.

Carolina would need every single one of those points to offset the performance from Swider, who scored a career-high 36 points before fouling out in overtime. He was a point away from tying the all-time Smith Center scoring record by a visiting player.

Monday night’s win moves the Tar Heels to 22-8 overall and 14-5 in ACC play. More importantly, it clinches a double-bye for the Tar Heels in next week’s ACC Tournament, and adds another win to the team’s March Madness resume.

For the sake of the team’s collective blood pressure, they’d be wise to avoid any additional situations in which their point guard needs to dig into his bag of tricks once more, but that might just be part of the Caleb Love Experience in 2022.

“All season, he’s hit those shots,” Bacot said. “I guess you’ve gotta live and die with it, and today we lived.”

 

Featured image via Todd Melet. For a photo gallery of the game, click here.

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