The Syracuse Orange and North Carolina Tar Heel's men's basketball teams came into the Dome in very different places.
Syracuse was unranked, with a 15-9 overall record, including an under .500 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) at 6-7, placing them ninth of 15 ACC member schools.
North Carolina entered this contest ranked nationally in both the Coaches' Poll (fifth) and Associated Press Poll (seventh), with an overall record of 19-5, including an ACC-leading record of 11-2.
Back-to-back threes were the first field goals scored by the Orange, the first by sophomore forward Chris Bell and the second by sophomore forward Maliq Brown, giving Syracuse a 6-5 lead.
A putback by Brown at the rim gave the Orange a score on each of their first three possessions, and an 8-5 start.
In total, Syracuse scored on six of their first seven trips down the floor, getting out to a 14-7 advantage coming out of the first media timeout (15:26 mark).
An acrobatic try at the rim for sophomore guard Quadir Copeland gave the Orange the first double-digit lead from either side, 21-11.
Including a possession that ended in a turnover by Copeland, Syracuse scored on 10 of their first 14 trips down the court, ahead 23-13 going into a media timeout at the 11:10 mark.
Just inside 10 minutes remaining in the first half, graduate guard Cormac Ryan became the first player on either team to attain double-figures in points, with 10, after a jumper.
With 4:26 to go in the first half, the Tar Heels tied the game at 34 after a 21-11 run that followed the 23-13 Orange lead, erasing the Orange advantage completely.
North Carolina would follow with their first lead of the game, 37-34, at the 3:59 mark, off of a three from junior forward Harrison Ingram; he also hit the three that tied the game for the Tar Heels on the prior possession, and grabbed the defensive rebound that led to the possession where he scored the three to take the lead.
Back-to-back jumpers by sophomore guard J.J. Starling, with a defensive rebound in between by him, would raise the Orange up to tie the Tar Heels as the teams headed into halftime knotted at 42-apiece.
In the first half, Syracuse was 17-for-27 from the field (4-for-8 from deep), North Carolina was 15-for-27 (7-for-13 from deep). The Orange went 4-for-5 at the charity stripe, the Tar Heels went 5-for-6.
The largest lead of the first 20 minutes for Syracuse was 10, while North Carolina's largest was four.
North Carolina had more rebounds, 13 to 10, and assists, 12 to five, than Syracuse in the first half of play.
The Orange would open the second half on a 10-1 run, rolling them out to a 52-43 advantage.
North Carolina's first field goal of the second half would come more than five minutes in, at the 14:57 mark, on a three by senior guard R.J. Davis, bringing the score to 52-46 Syracuse.
With over 11 minutes remaining, four of five starters were in double-figures for the Orange: Sophomore guard Judah Mintz with 15, Starling with 13, Bell with 11, and Brown with 10.
Davis would come up big for the Tar Heels again when he tied the game at 58 on an old-fashioned three-point play at the 10:02 mark with a layup and the following free throw.
Syracuse responded with back-to-back field goals, the first on a layup by Starling and the second a jumper from Bell to give the Orange a 62-58 lead.
North Carolina replied with a back-to-back of their own, with graduate forward/center Armando Bacot and then Davis making layups, giving the Tar Heels their first lead of the second half, up 65-64, with 7:08 to play.
Out of the media timeout, Starling would send home a long-range attempt, gaining the lead back for the Orange, 67-65, at the 6:45 mark.
Officials would rule Syracuse ball at the 1:23 mark after Copeland went for a steal and the ball went out-of-bounds, ruled to have gone off of Ingram.
Brown would make both attempts in his 1-and-1 opportunity, extending the Orange out to a 79-72 lead with 1:07 remaining on the game clock.
With exactly one minute to play, Copeland would go after the ball again, and the officials would rule Syracuse ball, again.
Copeland would be fouled and made one of two, giving the Orange an 80-72 lead with 58 seconds left.
Ryan would connect on a three with 50 seconds to go, making it a two-possession game, down 80-75 to Syracuse.
Mintz would make the first shot of his 1-and-1 attempt to give the Orange a six-point lead, 81-75, which the Tar Heels would respond to on a putback at the rim by Ingram, closing the gap to a four-point game, 81-77 Orange.
The next foul by North Carolina would put them in the double-bouns with 38.9 seconds to go. Brown would go 1-for-2, giving Syracuse an 82-77 lead.
Copeland would get a takeaway on the sideline for the third time late in this game, getting fouled and going 1-for-2 to move the Orange ahead 83-77.
Bacot would be called for a Flagrant-1 foul with 18.6 seconds to go, giving Syracuse two shots and the ball. Mintz went 1-for-2 and Starling followed by going 2-for-2.
Davis was let free for a layup for the final field goal of the game as the Orange rolled to an 86-79 win over the Tar Heels.
As a result, North Carolina has lost their third ACC game of the season, all to unranked teams at the time of play (74-73 at Georgia Tech, 80-76 at home versus Clemson, and now 86-79 at Syracuse).
The Tar Heels are now 19-6 overall and 11-3 in the ACC.
With the victory, Syracuse moves to 16-9 overall and back to .500 in the ACC, at 7-7.
Mintz led all scorers on both teams with 25 points. For Syracuse, Starling followed with 23, Brown with 14, and Bell with 13.
Davis led North Carolina with 19, followed by Ryan with 18 and Ingram and Bacot each with 14.
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