The Orange trailed for over 35 minutes, never leading in their home loss to the Tar Heels. Here's what we saw in SU's seventh loss of the season by seven points of less on Saturday:

Kyle Cuffe Jr. attempted an inexcusable 3-pointer with 28 seconds to play. While he did have an open look and the Orange were trying to score quickly, he had played for one second in the preceding 24 minutes of game time, then one defensive possession prior to taking that shot. He has shot 30.0 percent on the season from 3-point range coming into the game and made just two of his last 12 attempts from beyond the arc. There was more than enough time to take an acceptable shot, including driving and trying to draw contact to get to the line, and continue trying to press and foul the Tar Heels.

After picking up two quick fouls to start the game, J.J. Starling only tallied two foul shots, two rebounds and an assist in 9:38 of first half playing time. The second half was a different story, as Starling piled up 20 points to go with four rebounds and three assists.

Naheem McLeod continues to be a positive contributor in limited minutes off the bench in relief of Eddie Lampkin. In 5:11 of court time against North Carolina, McLeod had a basket, three rebounds, and an assist with all but one board coming in short order to help the Orange get out of an early hole as part of a mostly bench unit. It’s a flawed, context-driven statistic, but McLeod led SU in plus-minutes with a +9 mark.

Petar Majstorovic also contributed solid minutes off the bench, piling up seven points and four boards to go with an assists and a block. Majstorovic’s 25 minutes were a season-high as he had his 13th-straight game with double digits in the minute column. A sign of development is that he had two fouls, making the eighth time in 11 games where he drew two or fewer whistles.

It was a rough night for several Syracuse perimeter players. Chris Bell, Cuffe, and Elijah Moore combined for three points on 1-for-11 shooting from the field and 1-of-5 from 3-point range with four rebounds, one assist, and one turnover in a combined 33 minutes of play. Backup point guard Jaquan Carlos struggled with his shot, also, going 1-for-7, but earned the second half start over Moore with five of his seven assists coming before the break.

While the Orange have been an up-and-down team at the charity stripe this season, Saturday was one of their better efforts, as they had their third-n=best single-game percentage of the season, making over 90 percent of their free throws for the second straight game. The Orange shot 90.9 percent (20-of-22) from the line, trailing only Wednesday’s 94.1 percent mark (16-of-17) against Miami and a 2-forr-2 game against Maryland in late December. Starling’s 10-of-10 and Eddie Lampkin’s 8-of-9 efforts did most of the work.

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