Syracuse, N.Y. ― Opportunity knocked, but the Syracuse Orange wasn’t able to answer.
Syracuse came up short in a 72-68 loss to North Carolina on Tuesday night, missing out on an opportunity for a much-needed win over a quality opponent.
North Carolina scored the game’s last six points, four of them at the free-throw line, to prevent the Orange from notching its biggest win of the season.
The game was filled with last-minute drama.
With Syracuse trailing 66-65, Joe Girard buried a clutch 3-pointer to give the Orange a 68-66 lead with 1:27 remaining. It would be the last points Syracuse scored.
The Orange actually got the ball back with the two-point lead, but Judah Mintz’s mid-range jumper bounced off the rim.
North Carolina ran its high-low set with Armando Bacot dropping a pass to Pete Nance cutting backdoor.
Syracuse center Jesse Edwards prevented Nance from converting the dunk, but Edwards committed his fifth foul in the process.
Nance went to the free-throw line with 21.4 seconds remaining. He made his first shot, trimming Syracuse’s lead to 68-67, but he missed the second.
Syracuse couldn’t control the rebound. Girard dove to save the ball from going out of bounds, but he sent the ball toward Nance, whose layup put the Tar Heels ahead 69-68 with 17 seconds left.
Then, Mintz brought the ball up the court, drove headlong into the lane and charged into North Carolina’s R.J. Davis with 10 seconds on the clock.
After reviewing the play, the referees upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 1.
That gave North Carolina two free throws plus the ball. Caleb Love made one out of two free throws. Then Mintz fouled as the Tar Heels were trying to inbound the ball.
Love went back to the line, this time for two shots. Love made both free throws, giving North Carolina a four-point lead which essentially put the game out of reach.
Syracuse’s record falls to 13-8 on the season and 6-4 in the ACC. North Carolina improved to 15-6 on the year and 7-3 in the league.
Girard led Syracuse with 18 points. Mintz finished with 17. Chris Bell added 15.
Bacot dominated inside and wound up with 18 points. Love contributed 15 for the Tar Heels.
Syracuse’s Jesse Edwards and Judah Mintz both fouled out of the game.
With 4:27 remaining, Edwards, playing dangerously with four fouls, drew a charge on Bacot. It was the North Carolina center’s fourth foul and UNC coach Hubert Davis elected to take his star out of the game.
On the very next possession, Mintz drove into the lane and scored where Bacot might have been to give the Orange a 63-62 lead. It was just the second lead of the game for Syracuse.
Edwards had done well to stay out of foul trouble in the first half while going up against the physical Bacot.
But Edwards committed three fouls in a four-minute span early in the second half. Edwards went to the bench after drawing his fourth foul on a Bacot bucket with 13:34 left in the game. The And-1 gave the Tar Heels a 51-46 lead and left the Orange without its senior center for the next six minutes.
While Edwards was saddled with four fouls, Bacot had been whistled for just one.
North Carolina extended its lead to 56-46 on a Pete Nance 3-pointer, but with Edwards still watching from the bench, Syracuse clawed its way back into the game.
The Orange went on an 11-3 run, featuring two 3-pointers from Bell and one from Girard. Bell’s second triple narrowed North Carolina’s lead to 59-57 with just under nine minutes remaining.
After falling behind by nine points early in the game, Syracuse trailed throughout the first half. The Orange recovered from its slow start to pull to within 38-34 at the intermission.
Girard scored 12 of his points in the first half, knocking down five of his six field-goal attempts.
Syracuse hung with the Tar Heels on the boards in the first half. The Orange had 15 rebounds to UNC’s 14 and prevented North Carolina from scoring any second-chance points in the half.
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