North Carolina Tar Heels vs Syracuse Orange Match Player Stats On Mar 01, 2021

Buddy Boeheim scored 26 points and Syracuse almost saw a double-digit lead disappear down the stretch before holding on to defeat visiting North Carolina 72-70 on Monday night.

Quincy Guerrier added 18 points for the Orange (14-8, 8-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), who snapped a two-game skid as they try to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Armando Bacot posted 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Tar Heels (15-9, 9-6), who shot 4-for-20 on 3-pointers and committed 20 turnovers.

North Carolina, fresh off a comeback to upend first-place Florida State on Saturday, finishes the regular season Saturday night at home against rival Duke.

Syracuse, which closes the regular season with Wednesday's home make-up game vs. Clemson, went up by 12 points early in the second half. Following a North Carolina spurt, the Orange expanded their lead to 63-49 with slightly more than five minutes to play.

Syracuse scoring leader Alan Griffin didn't score until the last four minutes.

North Carolina climbed back, closing within 70-66 on R.J. Davis' 3-pointer at the 46-second mark. Then Caleb Love's basket closed the gap to 70-68.

But Joe Girard III made two of four fouls shots in the last 14 seconds to help avenge a January loss. Garrison Brooks' bucket in the final second wasn't enough for North Carolina.

Brooks ended up with 11 points and Love had 10.

North Carolina dominated at times in the first half, largely because of rebounding. A nine-point lead vanished as the Orange ended the half on a 14-2 run.

Boeheim had half of Syracuse's points by the break, with the Orange holding a 34-28 lead. Syracuse hit seven first-half 3-points shots while the Tar Heels didn't connect from long range until the second half.

Still, the Tar Heels' relentless pursuit of rebounds put Syracuse in foul trouble. North Carolina pulled in 25 offensive rebounds as part of an overall 52-33 rebounding advantage.

Syracuse won for only the second time in the last 12 meetings with North Carolina. The other Orange triumph in that stretch came in the ACC Tournament last March, a second-round game that turned out to be the last competition before the rest of the tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

--Field Level Media