UNC Basketball: Tar Heels commit 20 turnovers, fall to Syracuse 72-70

The UNC basketball program dropped another late-season game thanks to a flurry of careless turnovers and missed three-pointers.

Syracuse junior guard Buddy Boeheim scored a game-high 26 points on Monday night, as his Orange beat the North Carolina Tar Heels by a final score of 72-70 at the Carrier Dome.

Boeheim, who entered the game averaging 15.3 points per game, had 17 in the game’s first 20 minutes. He was on fire in the first half, draining one three-pointer after another en route to a 5-for-9 mark from beyond the arc. Sophomore forward Quincy Guerrier added 18 points on 8-of-13 from the floor and 2-of-3 from long-distance. No other Syracuse player scored more than eight points against the Tar Heels, but they did just enough to earn their 14th victory of the season, and keep their postseason hopes alive.

North Carolina was led by sophomore center Armando Bacot, who had 18 points and a season-high 15 rebounds. He was the Tar Heels’ most effective offensive option against the Orange, knocking down 7-of-10 shots from the floor and 4-of-5 at the free throw line. The Tar Heels got 11 points and six rebounds from senior big man Garrison Brooks, and 10 points from freshman point guard Caleb Love.

The Tar Heels simply couldn’t take care of the basketball against the Orange, as they committed 20 turnovers in 40 minutes. Five UNC players committed at least three turnovers — Brooks (4), Davis (4), Bacot (3), Love (3) and Sharpe (3) — and the team hit just 4-of-20 shots from three-point range. Add to it their 14-for-22 mark from the foul line, and their 38.2 percent shooting for the game, and it’s really no wonder why they came up on the losing end of this one.

Syracuse practically tried to give the game away in the waning moments of regulation, and North Carolina simply refused to take advantage. Their numerous miscues and missed free throws instead sealed the game for the Orange, who made more than enough mistakes over the game’s final 60 seconds to walk away with a loss.

It’s just another disappointing loss for Roy Williams’ Tar Heels, who managed to topple 11th-ranked Florida State on Saturday after losing to a fledgling Marquette Golden Eagles squad a few days prior. The words “inconsistent” and “schizophrenic” have been frequently thrown around to describe North Carolina this season, and the past week is a perfect example of why.

Their final game of the regular season is a Saturday evening matchup with rival Duke at the Dean Smith Center. Which UNC team will show up nobody could possibly know. Will it be the team that competed with Florida State on two occasions this season, or the one that lost to Marquette and NC State amid some of the sloppiest games of the Roy Williams era at UNC?

Check back with Keeping It Heel for all the latest on the UNC basketball program.