A trying season came to a merciful ending on Wednesday night at the Greensboro Coliseum, as the Syracuse Orange rolled to a 81-53 victory over the UNC men’s basketball team in the second round of the ACC Tournament.
Although the Tar Heels (14-18, 7-15 ACC) had been playing as well as anyone in the conference over the last three weeks—including a 13-point win at Syracuse on Feb. 29—they were unable to create magic in Greensboro and find a way to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.
A convincing win over Virginia Tech on Tuesday gave a glimmer of hope that UNC may have finally turned the corner, but Syracuse (18-14, 11-10 ACC) came out on a mission in Wednesday’s game—showing it had no intentions of losing to the Tar Heels for a 10th consecutive time.
The Orange led wire-to-wire and used a 15-0 run at the end of the first half to take a commanding 21-point lead into the break. From there, the domination continued as UNC simply had no answers for Syracuse on its way to the largest ACC Tournament loss in the program’s storied history.
Senior guard Brandon Robinson watches from the bench as his career in a Tar Heel uniform comes to an end with Wednesday’s loss to Syracuse in the ACC Tournament. (Photo via Todd Melet)
Forward Elijah Hughes had 18 of his game-high 27 points in the first half for the Orange, while his team led by as many as 30 in the final minutes—representing the largest deficit the Tar Heels had faced all year long.
As a result, head coach Roy Williams and company will end the year with a losing record for the first time during the Hall-of-Famer’s 17-year tenure in charge of the team.
“Needless to say, I thought we’d have a better record at the end of the year,” Williams told reporters afterwards. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what our record’s gonna be. I try to evaluate our team and I thought we could be better. But things didn’t go very smoothly for us.”
Junior forward Garrison Brooks led the Tar Heels with 18 points and seven rebounds, while sophomore guard Leaky Black added 14 points of his own.
Those two were the only UNC players to score in double figures, as Syracuse held freshman sensation Cole Anthony to a season-low five points in what was more than likely his final game in a Tar Heel uniform with most everyone expecting him to declare for this June’s NBA Draft.
As a team, UNC shot just 33 percent from the floor and connected on only two of its 16 attempts from three-point range—a far cry from the 11 it made in the win at Syracuse two weeks ago.
A long summer now awaits the Tar Heels, who will miss the postseason outright for the first time since 2010.
With Anthony, Brandon Robinson, Christian Keeling and Justin Pierce all expected to be gone from the team next year—not to mention a highly-touted recruiting class arriving in the fall—the product on the floor will likely be much different next season.
If anything, the players like Brooks and freshman forward Armando Bacot who will return next season should be able to use this year as plenty of motivation moving into the future.
“I think there was some times in our season where everyone didn’t come as hard as they should have,” Brooks said. “And as a leader, I have to do a better job motivating everyone that to come to work every day and come with their hard hat and lunch pails. To just show that every day is meaningful. And that every day means something to us.”
Game Notes:
- Cole Anthony shot just 2-for-10 from the floor and did not make a single trip to the free throw line.
- The Tar Heels turned the ball over 18 times compared to only eight for Syracuse.
- Garrison Brooks had his streak of seven consecutive games with at least 20 points snapped.
Cover photo via Todd Melet
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