Hicks the catalyst in UNC’s 84-73 win at Syracuse

Would Isaiah Hicks have had the moxie to make that kind of play, the confidence, in his earlier years at North Carolina?

Would he have had the wherewithal to receive a quick pass and make a move right to the basket, as he did during a pivotal moment here on Saturday night when the Carrier Dome, energized by the return of Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, was its most raucous?

“It was possible,” Hicks said, smiling, after the Tar Heels’ 84-73 victory at Syracuse. “But with the way my mindset was, probably not.”

After a 3-pointer from Trevor Cooney the Orange led UNC 56-50 with about 8 ½ minutes to play. At the time many in the Carrier Dome were on their feet, screaming, urging the home team on. And then seconds later, after Cooney’s 3, the mood had turned.

Hicks beat the Syracuse defense back down the court and set up on the wing. He took a pass from Brice Johnson, the senior forward who’d scored 39 points earlier in the week in a victory at Florida State but had a career-high eight assists on Saturday night.

When he caught it Hicks moved aggressively to the basket, released an emotional dunk and was fouled on the play. He made the free throw, cutting the Orange lead to three points. And then UNC’s deficit was one point moments later when, after a Syracuse turnover, Justin Jackson scored on a layup.

Boeheim, the Hall of Fame coach was back for his first game after returning from a nine-game suspension, called a timeout then, the Carrier Dome quiet. About 30 seconds later UNC took the lead on another layup from Jackson and not long after that UNC took the lead for good with a pair of free throws from Hicks, who tied his career high with 21 points.

Twelve of those came during one 6 ½ minute stretch late in the second half when the Tar Heels went from trailing by six points to leading by nine. That’s when the Tar Heels, who outscored Syracuse 34-17 during the final 8 ½ minutes, seized control of the game.

The finish was reminiscent of other strong finishes in victories against Kansas State and Maryland and Florida State.

“With the timeout around the seven-minute mark, I’ve said we’ve been here before,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “But let’s do it with our brain and our heart, both. And I think that’s what we did in Tallahassee the other night and I think that’s what happened to us tonight, as well.”

The game turned in UNC’s favor once it solved Syracuse’s vaunted 2-3 zone. The solution wasn’t so difficult, it turned out: work the ball to Johnson, or another big man, in the middle of that zone, and then let him pass to another forward in the post.

It worked again and again in the decisive moments for UNC, and worked most often when Hicks finished a play at the basket with either a layup or dunk.

“When we started exposing the middle of the zone, that was probably the biggest momentum shift,” said Marcus Paige, the senior forward who finished with a season-low three points. “We were still struggling to get stops, but it was in that 50-(point) range when it was a one- or two-possession game.

“Isaiah got a couple different dunks off the high-low action from Brice and Isaiah and that changed the game. When we watched film, all we talked about was trying to attack where it says ‘ACC’ on the court, right below the free throw line.”

Once UNC successfully worked the ball there, Paige said, it was “dunk city” for the Tar Heels.

And that it was, especially, in the game’s decisive moments.

The Tar Heels shot just 42 percent in the first half but closed yet another game with an impressive shooting display. They shot 64.3 percent in the second half – which allowed UNC to shoot better than 50 percent for the 13th time this season, overall – and once UNC took the lead with 6 ½ minutes to play it never relinquished.

Three times UNC went ahead by four points and three times Syracuse cut UNC’s lead back down to two. Then Hicks converted another three-point play to give the Tar Heels a five-point lead, and then a Hicks dunk and a jump shot from Jackson stretched UNC’s lead to seven points with a little more than two minutes remaining. From there Syracuse never cut its deficit to fewer than seven points.

With the win, UNC goes to 4-0 in the ACC, the best start in Williams’ tenure as Tar Heels coach.

Like Syracuse did with Boeheim, UNC celebrated a return of its own on Saturday. Kennedy Meeks, the junior forward, was back after he’d missed the previous seven games while recovering from a knee injury. He finished with eight points, all in the first half.

It was Hicks, though, who was most instrumental in the Tar Heels victory. After trailing by six points with 8 ½ minutes to play, UNC outscored Syracuse by 17 points the rest of the way.

It all began with a three-point play from Hicks, on a move he might have been too timid to make in years past.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Hicks the catalyst in UNC’s 84-73 win at Syracuse."