SU handed worst defeat as ACC member

The Dean Smith Center remains a house of horrors for Syracuse men’s basketball.

SU put in a performance to forget, losing 103-67 at No. 7 North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. The 36-point margin of defeat was SU’s largest as a member of the ACC.

The Orange are winless in seven games in Chapel Hill since joining the ACC and just 3-12 against the Tar Heels in that period.

Adrian Autry’s team needed to hold its own in the paint for the Orange to be competitive. Even though Carolina big man Armando Bacot wasn’t much of a factor, the Tar Heels wasted little time shredding SU in the paint.

The Tar Heels ripped off a 34-11 run to open up a commanding 45-18 lead with 4:30 left in the first half.

Syracuse cut it to 54-39 after Chris Bell hit a three early in the second half, but North Carolina hit back with a lightning-quick 8-0 run to re-establish control and only continued to pile on from there.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Picked apart

Syracuse just couldn’t stop the Tar Heels on Saturday. UNC got the ball inside whenever it wanted thanks to crisp ball movement. Carolina absolutely dominated down low, racking up 58 points in the paint against the overmatched Orange.

Autry tried the 2-3 zone a chunk of time, but it didn’t matter. Carolina’s inside game was so efficient, that it only needed to make 7 of 26 shots from long distance en route to 103 points.

The Tar Heels shot 48 percent from the floor while the Orange struggled to a 37 percent mark.

UNC also dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Orange 53-30, and grabbing 19 offensive boards which led to 22 second-chance points.

While the Orange wouldn’t have won if he played, Naheem McLeod’s absence certainly loomed large against a Tar Heel team with plenty of options in the paint.

Cold as ice

Outside shooting continues to be a concern for the Orange in ACC play. SU shot just 4-for-19 from deep in Saturday’s loss. Bell was the only long-distance threat, going a perfect 3-for-3 from range. Quadir Copeland was the only other SU player to hit an outside shot.

Guards Judah Mintz, J.J. Starling, and Copeland all prefer to get into the paint off the dribble, while Benny Williams and Kyle Cuffe have struggled to be consistent from range off the bench.

Justin Taylor, the team’s other outside shooting threat, continued to struggle, failing to score on the afternoon.

It all added up to poor floor-spacing for the Orange, making it even more difficult to play from behind.

SU is just 17-for-73 on 3-pointers in its last four conference games.

Trying to find some light

A win is a win and a loss is a loss.

That said, the 36-point loss and lack of competitiveness against the Tar Heels and other heavy losses to top competition like Duke and Tennessee won’t look great on Syracuse’s resume as March gets closer.

The good news for the Orange is that the schedule lets up a bit for the next few weeks with three consecutive home games sandwiched between road trips to Pittsburgh and Boston College.

Should Syracuse take care of business at home and manage to defeat two teams it has already won against, the Orange would be in pretty good shape at the end of January.

But they play the games for a reason.

SU returns to action on Tuesday night against Pittsburgh. The Orange will have a chance to avenge Saturday’s game against UNC — and biggest loss since 2006 — on Feb. 13 at the JMA Wireless Dome.