SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Before taking on No. 2 Syracuse on Saturday, North Carolina coach Roy Williams stressed the importance of balanced scoring to find success at the Carrier Dome.
The key, he said, to thwarting the Orange’s formidable zone was being effective from both 3-point range and feeding the ball inside. The recipe seemed simple enough, but in the 57-45 loss, shooting woes plagued the Tar Heels (10-6, 0-3 ACC) inside and out.
UNC matched its season-low field goal attempts with 51
for the third consecutive game.
“Their zone is very good. There’s no question about that,” coach Roy Williams said.
Only two players, forward James Michael McAdoo and guard Marcus Paige, scored more than four points and combined for 32 of UNC’s 45 points. Excluding McAdoo and Desmond Hubert, who was sidelined with a concussion, the remaining four big men combined for four points and 10 rebounds.
“Their size and length bothered us inside, and that controlled the entire game, honestly,” Paige said. “You can only prepare so much for that kind of length and athleticism, and obviously we couldn’t respond to how big they were.”
Early in the game, it appeared McAdoo’s interior presence could be enough to carry the Tar Heels, but an adjustment by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim midway through the first half rendered McAdoo ineffective. After scoring 10 points in the first 10 minutes, McAdoo only added five more in the remainder of the game.
UNC continued to struggle from behind the arc, only hitting two of 12 3-point attempts. The Tar Heels get 13.6 percent of their points from beyond the arc, the lowest among Division I teams.
