Syracuse trailed for over 35 minutes and could never quite get over the hump, dropping an 88-82 game to North Carolina at the JMA Wireless Dome. The Orange (11-15, 5-10 ACC) trailed by ten points with under five minutes remaining and rallied to get within two with a minute to play, but suffered their seventh loss in their last ten outings when they ceded a basket to the Tar Heels (15-11, 8-6), who then iced the game with four straight foul shots.

UNC tied their season-high with 13 3-pointers, shooting 46.4 percent from behind the arc on the evening. It was a major difference in the game, as SU lagged well behind, connecting on a mere 4-of-13 shots from long range. The two squads were fairly competitive across the remainder of the stat sheet with Carolina’s 8-2 advantage in blocked shots over Syracuse being the most significant difference.

Both teams were slow out of the gates, but between the first two media timeouts, North Carolina outscored the Orange 9-4 to take a 13-8 lead. Reserves Jaquan Carlos, Petar Majstorovic, and Naheem McLeod authored a quick 6-2 response through some nice passing that generated good looks to pull SU within a single point.

SU tied the game up on a Chris Bell 3-pointer, but the Tar Heels hit back with nine straight points for a 28-19 lead with five minutes left in the opening half. A Lucas Taylor floater stopped the bleeding, but a UNC triple nudged the margin out to double figures.

The guests stretched their lead 1o 11, but an Eddie Lampkin 3-point-play and a Taylor triple drew Syracuse within five. Carolina replied with a 3-pointer of their own to take a 42-34 lead into the break.

J.J. Starling notched a layup to clip the margin to a half dozen, but the Heels responded by pushing it right back out to 11 points. Shortly after, the Orange outscored UNC, 11-5, to whittle the lead down to 57-52.

After a Tar Heel 3-pointer, SU responded with an 8-0 burst, the final six coming from Starling, to knot the game at 60 a side with 10:10 on the clock. After Syracuse tied the score a second time, North Carolina scored 11 of the next 13 points to take control once more at 73-64 with 7:26 on the clock.

The lead touched double digits again, but the Orange pushed back once more, stitching together a 12-4 run to draw within 82-80 with 58 seconds on the clock. The SU defense could not hold, however, giving up a layup to make it a four-point game. Kyle Cuffe Jr. missed a 3-pointer and Syracuse never threatened again.

Lampkin led all scorers by posting a season-high 26 points to go with his game-high 11 rebounds for his 11th double-double. Starling poured in 20 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. Taylor and Jyare Davis aided the Orange cause with ten and nine points, respectively.

Ian Jackson hit five 3-pointers as he topped the Tar Heel offense with 23 points, including 16 in the first half. Jae’Lyn Withers and R.J. Davis each connected three times from long distance as they finished with 19 and 16 points, respectively. Elliot Cadeau chipped in with nine.

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