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Leaky Black weaved through two Syracuse defenders under the basket and flipped the ball to Armando Bacot. The Orange’s 2-3 zone closed, but that gave Bacot enough space to set his feet and draw a foul on Quincy Guerrier while attempting a layup.

With one minute left in the second half, Bacot’s basket put North Carolina up by three. Guerrier’s foul was his fifth, and he strolled over to the SU bench. The Orange’s chance at erasing another UNC run dwindled, and it continued to do so after Bacot corralled his own missed foul shot. UNC’s 24th offensive rebound — the most Syracuse has allowed all season — resulted in its final field goal of the game and wound the clock even more.

“We had some opportunities to take the rebound, but we missed it sometimes,” Guerrier said.

Bourama Sidibe’s absence for the ninth straight game presented an opportunity for North Carolina (8-4, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) to take advantage on the boards. The Tar Heels did just that. They grabbed 24 offensive rebounds while Syracuse secured just 10. They replenished missed 3-pointers with 24 second-chance points as SU sputtered and scored just four. Guerrier’s 23 points and Buddy Boeheim’s 18 helped prevent UNC from pulling away until the game’s final minutes, but Syracuse (7-3, 1-2) still fell 81-75 to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

“They were just too big for us inside,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We tried to get back. We did a pretty good job forcing them into shots, but then they got the ball back.”

The trend that emerged throughout the game on the glass wasn’t new. If anything, it was expected against North Carolina. In 13 games against Roy Williams — 12 of which have come since Syracuse joined the ACC — the Orange have outrebounded the Tar Heels just twice. Even during SU’s 28-point blowout win last March, UNC still managed to grab 42 rebounds compared to Syracuse’s 38.

That was also the game —  in the Greensboro Coliseum, 307 days ago and 52 miles west from where Guerrier won the opening tip Tuesday night — before everything changed. March 11 was the last night, the last slate of games, before the coronavirus pandemic halted the sports world. The new life Syracuse had injected into its postseason hopes was ultimately extinguished hours later.

The eight-month path from a season without a finish line to one without a defined starting point turned into a crawl. Through the first nine games, Syracuse struggled to find a rhythm as it missed nearly two dozen practices. UNC faced the same pauses and postponements, too. Contact tracing took players like Buddy out of the lineup, burying the stroke that helped him become the ACC’s most efficient shooter last season.

But with Syracuse trailing UNC by eight and the first half winding down, Buddy caught a pass from Guerrier and launched a shot over a Tar Heel defender, his left foot almost scraping the center court logo. Twenty seconds later, he crossed over in transition, pulled up and swished a second.

Buddy Boeheim fueled SU with an 18-point first half performance before he was held scoreless in the second frame. Courtesy of Robert Willett | Raleigh News & Observer

His eight straight points drew SU’s level at 40 heading into halftime, recovering from a deficit created by North Carolina’s nine offensive rebounds in the opening frame. Garrison Brooks grabbed the first one, converting a layup on the rebound to put UNC up 8-7, and Bacot grabbed another soon after. As that shot arced toward the rim, Bacot had already secured rebounding position on Guerrier.

“It was really hard at the rebound,” Guerrier said. “They were more physical.”

Syracuse’s disadvantage inside, created by Sidibe’s injury, was heightened after Marek Dolezaj picked up two fouls less than four minutes into the game. Jesse Edwards played for the first time since the Orange’s blowout win against Boston College, and UNC’s offense immediately shifted to attack him in the middle of the zone.

Brooks posted up on Edwards, spun around, but missed his jumper. Then, Edwards stepped up on Caleb Love’s drive and knocked the ball out of bounds. It helped bridge the gap until Dolezaj returned and eventually allowed for Buddy’s first half scoring run that prevented UNC from building an unbreakable lead before halftime even arrived.

But then the Tar Heels’ rebounding success allowed it to take over again. On one possession in the second half, they had seven opportunities to score — spanning five offensive rebounds, a media timeout and an out-of-bounds play. Still, SU clawed back, using a 10-point run kickstarted by Guerrier to take the lead.

With just over 13 minutes left, Guerrier sprinted toward the left block as Day’Ron Sharpe rose for a layup and swatted the shot off the backboard. Syracuse’s ensuing transition sequence settled, Guerrier corralled a pass in front of the Orange’s bench and a 3-pointer put them up 53-49.

That run reflected the missing piece, the hindrance that kept SU from defeating Pitt and nearly prevented it from winning against Georgetown, too. The missed shots to open the second half. The scoring drought — or, at the worst points, droughts — that erased Syracuse’s first half momentum.

“We almost have to play a perfect game on offense,” Boeheim said. “We weren’t perfect, we played pretty well, we just got beat up in the paint.”

But even with the responsive runs that almost allowed the Orange to overcome the deficit inside, which featured 42 UNC points in the paint, errors down the stretch prevented their first-ever win in Chapel Hill. Joe Girard III lofted a careless pass over Buddy’s head with 9:13 left. Alan Griffin missed a 3-pointer and Guerrier fouled. And then there was the offensive rebounding.

Sharpe positioned himself near the right block, turned his back toward the basket and waited for a pass. North Carolina’s freshman forward had scored two of the last three baskets for the Tar Heels as the second half neared the eight-minute mark, bruising past a pair of Syracuse defenders and piercing the 2-3 zone, extending UNC’s lead to eight points with a layup.

That once again established the sense of urgency in Syracuse’s offense. It cut UNC’s lead to three, but then Girard missed a rushed layup. Griffin, standing nearby, fought for possession and attempted to go back up, nearly muscling possession away from two UNC defenders. 

But while going back up for the offensive rebound, he lost control. The ball bounced harmlessly out of bounds, and Griffin’s head sunk down in his hands.

Published on January 12, 2021 at 11:24 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew