UNC Basketball: Tar Heels win thriller to keep tournament hopes alive

The UNC basketball program kept its NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Syracuse Orange.

The North Carolina Tar Heels still have high hopes of making it to this year’s NCAA Tournament and that’s thanks in part to their thrilling come-from-behind victory over the Syracuse Orange on Monday night.

A raucous crowd at the Dean Smith Center watched the Tar Heels go down early, as the hot-shooting Cole Swider scored 21 of his eventual game-high 36 points before halftime. North Carolina continued to fight and tightened up on defense enough to take a five-point lead into the intermission.

The second half was even more exciting, particularly over the game’s final two minutes, when the formerly ice-cold Caleb Love hit a pair of three-pointers, including the go-ahead bucket to give the Tar Heels a 73-71 lead with 11 seconds remaining. Syracuse’s Joseph Girard came down the court and tied it up with a baseline jumper that would send the game into overtime.

That’s when the Tar Heels really turned up the heat and put the game away for good.

Three-pointers from R.J. Davis and Caleb Love, as well as three free throws from the latter, helped the Tar Heels put the Orange on ice in the extra period. The Tar Heels closed out the game on a 15-6 run and won by a final score of 88-79.

Brady Manek led the Tar Heels with 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting and 3-of-6 from three-point range. He added five rebounds and three assists and didn’t commit a single turnover despite playing most of the game.

Love scored 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting and 4-of-12 from long-range. Although he struggled mightily with his shooting touch for the first 37 minutes of the game, he came through big in the game’s waning moments and hit all five of his free throw attempts. He also came up with six rebounds, dished out three assists and committed zero turnovers.

Armando Bacot got his record-tying 23rd double-double of the season with a 17-point, 18-rebound performance. R.J. Davis went for 17 points and five assists, while Leaky Black scored eight points to go along with seven rebounds and a game-high seven assists.

The Tar Heels shot 40.8 percent (29-for-71) for the game, 38.9 percent (14-for-36) from three and 80 percent (16-for-20) at the foul line. They outrebounded the Orange by 14 (44-30), including a 16-5 edge on the offensive glass. They assisted on 21 of their 29 made buckets and only committed eight turnovers in 45 minutes of play.

Cole Swider’s 36 points guided the Orange throughout until he got called for his fifth foul with 1:33 remaining in overtime. He hit 14-of-21 shots from the floor and 7-of-11 from downtown. Buddy Boeheim scored 14 points to go along with seven rebounds and two steals.

The Orange, 15-15 overall and 9-10 in conference play, hit an outstanding 49.2 percent (31-for-63) of their shots for the game and 40 percent (10-for-25) from three. They had only nine assists for the entire game and made it to the free throw line just eight times (7-for-8).

The Tar Heels, now 22-8 on the season and 14-5 in ACC games, clinch a top-four seed and double-bye in next week’s ACC Tournament. They’ll close out the season with a game against rival Duke this weekend at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Check back with Keeping It Heel for complete coverage of that game as well as all the latest news, views and recruiting info about the UNC basketball program.