Syracuse (11-4, 2-2 ACC) is looking for its first ACC road win of the season when it travels south to take on North Carolina.

Opponent: North Carolina (12-3, 4-0 ACC)

Date & Time: Saturday, Jan. 13, 12:00 p.m.

Location: Dean E. Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC

TV: ESPN

Is this the season Syracuse finally beats North Carolina in Chapel Hill?

There's only one road arena in which SU has yet to win a game in conference play in its 11 ACC seasons, and it happens to be the site of the next game on the schedule. Bad timing?

Perhaps.

This matchup does not appear favorable against a first-place Carolina team that has won five straight games and is 6-0 at home this season. SU has failed to win in six previous meetings against UNC in the almost 40-year-old Smith Center, with the average margin of the Tar Heels victories being nine points.

In fact, the only SU conference wins over Carolina have occurred in the Dome (2014, 2021) and in Greensboro (2020 ACCT). (Let's not think about the fact that it took Clemson 59 games over 94 years (0-28 at the Smith Center), to finally beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 2020.)

That's the set-up for what's now essentially an eight-nine player SU rotation at the season's halfway mark with Naheem McLeod's season-ending foot injury, and Mounir Hima's achy knees limiting his per game minutes in the middle.

It certainly looks like, as Adrian Autry has preached his entire first season, that the W/L record will be defined by how well the team plays defensively and rebounds, while balancing an abundance of offensive options in any given game.

Wednesday night while Syracuse put the defensive clamps on Boston College, giving up just nine points and scoring 20 after falling behind 50-49 with 7:26 to play on route to winning 69-59, helped by turning 22 BC turnovers into 28 game-changing points, Carolina regrouped at halftime of its rivalry game at NC State ballooning a two-point lead to double-digits and beating the 'Pack going away 67-54.

The Tar Heels rely on balanced offensive production from their starters, even though guard RJ Davis leads the ACC in scoring (20.3), and big men Armando Bacot (1st in ACC) and Harrison Ingram (8th) have been a force rebounding at both ends of the floor.

It sounds like a tall task in a homecourt environment that backs the Heels fervently, but to pull off an upset and finally win in Chapel Hill Syracuse will need to continue to force turnovers defensively and turn those stops into points, find some outside shooting to keep the UNC defense honest underneath, and perhaps a referee's call or two here and there over 40 minutes or some other intangible.

In the end, however, a valent Syracuse effort will come up short with North Carolina besting the Orange 81-75.

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