UNC basketball sinks 3s in OT en route to 88-79 Senior Night win over Syracuse Orange
North Carolina got off to a slow start at the opening tip, watching Syracuse run out to a 9-0 lead. The Tar Heels were lethargic at the beginning of the second half, as the Orange erased a five-point halftime deficit with a 10-1 spurt.
But in overtime, Carolina was the team with the energy, scoring the first eight points of the extra period en route to a 88-79 victory Monday in the Dean E. Smith Center.
The win means the Heels (22-8, 14-5 ACC) clinched a double bye in the ACC tournament next week in Brooklyn. They can finish no lower than the fourth seed, although they could technically be tied for second in the standings. The Heels would lose any tiebreakers with Notre Dame and Miami due to their head-to-head losses.
UNC coach Hubert Davis said the team’s chemistry is “the best that it’s been all season.”
“There is a togetherness that we have right now that has manifested into something that’s just really special,” Davis said. “Our huddles are full of encouragement. We’re lifting each other up.”
UNC guard Caleb Love had the biggest pick-me-up with the Heels trailing 71-70 with 15 seconds remaining in regulation. Love had been just 2-for-10 from 3-point range, but pulled up from about 25 feet on the left wing to put UNC back ahead with 7.2 seconds left.
Love said the Heels didn’t have a set play called, but that Davis didn’t want them fiddling with the ball trying to find a great shot against the zone.
“It wasn’t really a play, coach told us to take the first open one so we could rebound if we missed,” said Love, who scored 21 points. “That’s exactly what I did, I stepped in and shot it. Soon as it left my hand, I knew it was good.”
It seemed to catch the Orange a bit off guard that Love took it from that range and with that much time remaining. Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said with a one-point lead, they emphasized defending the lane against penetration. Boeheim said because Love had shot so poorly leading up to that moment, the Orange could live with that shot.
“If somebody’s going to take that, I’d rather him take it, and he made it,” Boeheim said. “That happens.’’
UNC forward Armando Bacot said the shot was, “kind of gangsta.”
“That was ridiculous,” Bacot said. “And I mean, he made it though, so it was great. And I was happy for him. And I guess it just shows his toughness just to even be able to take that shot while struggling.”
The downside of Love’s make was it allowed Syracuse plenty of time to get a shot off. Orange guard Joe Girard III raced the ball down the floor and got a shot over R.J. Davis with 1.4 seconds to play to tie the game and send it into overtime.
In overtime, Love again pulled a deep 3, this time from the right side of the court. R.J. Davis, who had 17 points including five 3-pointers, followed Love’s shot with another 3 that helped spark an 8-0 run for the 11th and final lead change in the game.
Carolina now awaits Saturday’s rematch with Duke, in what will be the final home game for Blue Devils’ coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Here’s what we learned from the Heels’ win:
3s and more 3s, please
Carolina hasn’t played a team that played zone exclusively until Syracuse on Monday. And that zone kept the Heels shooting jumpers. Eleven of their first 14 shot attempts were 3-pointers. They didn’t score a basket inside of the arc until a Bacot dunk with 9:55 left in the first half.
Bacot struggled to get shots he would normally get, but he still finished with 17 points and 18 rebounds. Bacot tied Brice Johnson (2015-16 season) for the school record for double-doubles in a season at 23. Bacot also set a new school single-season record with 24 games with 10 or more rebounds.
“They did a good job of kind of shrinking the hole in when I caught the ball kind of down low,” Bacot said. “So I just had to really just get it off the offensive glass and just find a way to impact the game.”
Normally, it’s not the kind of ratio Hubert Davis would like to see, especially as the Heels had been held below 30 percent from 3 in three of their past four games. But against the Orange, they started off hot.
UNC connected on 6-for-11 to begin the game and finished with 14 makes, which was just one shy of its season-high set in the home win over N.C. State. Carolina did have a season-high 36 attempts, surpassing the previous high of 30 3-point attempts in its loss at Miami.
R.J. Davis had been 4-for-14 over the last four games from 3-point range, but poured in 5-for-11 against the Orange. Love made his last two 3s to finish 4-for-12. Brady Manek, who scored a team-high 22 points, added three 3s and Leaky Black had two.
Most of those open looks 3s came from the Heels keeping the ball moving against the zone. Carolina’s 21 assists, which came on 29 made field goals, were just one short of tying its season-high.
“You can see today how we were able to share the ball,” R.J. Davis said. “We really didn’t care about who got the shots and who had the most points or whatnot. It was more about getting the win and I think that’s been huge for us.”
The Leaky treatment
Syracuse guard Buddy Boeheim was second in the ACC, scoring 19.1 points per game. He got the Leaky Black treatment on Monday. Carolina’s top defender made it tough for Boeheim to get into a rhythm.
Boeheim was limited to just five points in the first half on five shot attempts and had another five in the second half before Black’s services were needed elsewhere.
Cole Swider scored 21 points in the first half and was up to 32 in the second when Hubert Davis moved Black to defend Swider. That matchup never materialized because the Orange started feeding Boeheim with Black now off of him. (Swider finished with 36 points.)
Black’s defensive play set up Love’s go-ahead shot at the end of regulation.
Black moved back to Boeheim after the Orange called a timeout with four seconds left on the shot clock and leading 71-70. Black forced a turnover on the in-bounds pass that was intended for Boeheim.
“I knew exactly what they were going to run,” Black said. “I knew they were going to run a little pin down for him to get it in the corner because he hadn’t shot (on me) in a minute. I just tried to beat him to the spot and forcing him in the corner really makes him uncomfortable.”
Boeheim finished with 14 points, after scoring his final two baskets against Love. It was part of a trend for Black, who has held most of the league’s top-six scorers below their averages when he’s faced them, including Georgia Tech’s Michael DeVoe, N.C. State’s Dereon Seabron and Duke’s Paolo Banchero.
“It’s just hard for me to find anybody, especially on the wing, that has done a better job defensively in this conference than Leaky,” Hubert Davis said. “His ability to defend, his versatility, we can move him around, he can guard little guards, power forwards.”
Davis said Black should be first team all-defensive team ACC, but should also get strong consideration for Defensive Player of the Year.
Seniors shine
Hubert Davis kept with UNC’s tradition and started all of the seniors against the Orange. Ryan McAdoo got his first career start for UNC, replacing Love in the lineup. Manek, who is a graduate transfer, and Black were all recognized before the game complete with video introductions and framed jerseys.
Davis said he shared a story with the team on how disappointed he was as a freshman guard when Carolina lost to Duke during assistant coach Jeff Lebo’s senior night.
“Senior night, here at Carolina is significant and serious,” Davis said. “And that there is a responsibility (for) all of us to make sure that the last time that Brady and Leaky and Ryan run off that floor and come through the tunnel, that they have a smile on their face, and they have those memories.”
Black could decide to replay his senior night next year. He has not made a decision publicly yet, but he could opt for one more year thanks to the NCAA’s eligibility waiver for the 2020-21 season.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 9:20 PM.