UNC Tar Heels Basketball Team Struggles to Stop Syracuse
by Derrick Clyburn
The North Carolina basketball team has had a rollercoaster season. You don’t know what team will show up from game to game. You get the good North Carolina or the bad North Carolina, but with no consistency. Tonight against Syracuse the Tar Heels started out getting the ball inside with good success. UNC had as much as an 8 point lead.
Then they started turning the ball over which led to wide-open 3 pointers for Syracuse. The Tar Heels went into a drought shooting mainly perimeter shots and Syracuse stayed hot going into halftime with a 6 point lead.
North Carolina made a run early in the second half to get it within 2 points then Syracuse pushed the lead out to as much as 12 points with Boeheim and Guerrier going one on one most possessions.
The Tar Heels made a late run with less than two minutes to play to bring it to a 2 point game, but they couldn’t capitalize on their last two possessions to tie the game.
UNC Game Stats
1 2 T North Carolina 28 42 70 Syracuse 34 38 72 NORTH CAROLINA Pts FG 3P FT Reb Ast TO Min 1 L. BLACK 6 2-6 0-1 2-3 4 3 0 27 15 G. BROOKS 11 5-9 0-0 1-2 6 1 4 29 2 C. LOVE 10 3-10 2-5 2-4 8 3 3 29 24 K. WALTON 2 1-10 0-7 0-0 1 2 1 22 5 A. BACOT 18 7-10 0-0 4-5 15 1 3 25 0 A. HARRIS 1 0-3 0-2 1-2 1 0 0 9 11 D. SHARPE 6 2-5 0-0 2-4 7 1 3 14 13 W. KESSLER 4 2-3 0-0 0-0 3 1 2 10 21 S. MANLEY 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 A. PLATEK 3 1-3 1-2 0-0 2 1 0 12 4 R. DAVIS 9 3-9 1-3 2-2 1 3 4 23 TOTAL 70 26-68 4-20 14-22 53 16 20 38.2 20.0 63.6 SYRACUSE Pts FG 3P FT Reb Ast TO Min 0 A. GRIFFIN 4 1-10 0-6 2-2 4 0 1 23 1 Q. GUERRIER 18 8-13 2-5 0-0 6 2 1 32 11 GIRARD III 4 1-3 0-2 2-4 1 0 2 10 21 M. DOLEZAJ 8 3-7 0-0 2-3 5 5 1 36 35 B. BOEHEIM 26 9-20 6-13 2-3 2 2 0 39 14 J. EDWARDS 6 2-5 0-0 2-2 8 0 1 24 20 R. BRASWELL 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 5 3 K. RICHMOND 6 3-8 0-1 0-0 3 9 4 31 TOTAL 72 27-66 8-27 10-14 33 18 12 40.9 29.6 71.4
UNC Bright Spots
Armando Bacot had 18 points, 15 rebounds, and 1 assist.
Garrison Brooks had 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist.
Walker Kessler had 10 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Needs Work
The Tar Heels guards need to be much better running the offense, hitting open shots, and taking care of the ball. UNC had 20 turnovers and the guards shot 8 of 32 from the field.
Roy needs to be aware of the player combinations that are in the game. Platek, Black, Kessler, Sharpe, and Davis are not a good offensive unit which leads to big deficits.
Final Observations
This Tar Heels team has no true leadership and is so young and inexperienced. They are up and down every game with no consistency. They haven’t had many complete games on both ends of the floor all season and we are in the final stages. It looks like the underclassmen are going to have to take charge of the team. Brooks, Black, and Platek have been a big disappointment with their lack of leadership.
They have the talent to beat anyone but can also lose to anyone. Which is not a good characteristic to have. I know Roy has to be frustrated with the mixed results. North Carolina has one regular season game left against Duke at home on Saturday. They need to go out on Senior Day with a victory to right the ship going into the ACC Tournament play.