Written by DAVID GLENN
Among the seven teams at the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings heading into Saturday’s games, only one — North Carolina — had a massive disparity between its home and road records during league play this season.
The #16 Tar Heels and #3 Duke were the only ACC teams with perfect records at home, but UNC was the only league contender with a losing record on the road. As the Heels headed to Syracuse, they were just 2-5 in their conference road games, and they had been blown out at SMU and, more recently, at NC State.
At Syracuse, where the Tar Heels once again were without injured star freshman Caleb Wilson, they won largely because their three most experienced players — redshirt junior center Henri Veesaar, junior guard Luka Bogavac and senior guard Seth Trimble — provided both the poise and the production teams need, especially from their veterans, to win in hostile environments.
Veesaar, who will turn 22 years old during March Madness, continued his All-ACC-caliber campaign with the Tar Heels by proving he was the best player on the court at Syracuse, despite the imposing presence of Orange center William Kyle, the league’s top shot blocker. After missing the Heels’ previous two games with a lower-body issue, Veesaar scored a team-high 19 points, grabbed three rebounds and blocked three shots in Carolina’s much-needed 77-64 victory.
Bogavac, a 22-year-old from Montenegro who played the past two seasons in the professional-level Adriatic Basketball Association, posted 13 points and a season-high six rebounds at Syracuse. Importantly, he often sought out the ball offensively, ultimately getting to the free throw line seven times while compiling two assists and zero turnovers in front of an announced crowd of 23,606 spectators. That number, which marked the largest crowd in college basketball this season, is roughly 10 times the average attendance in the Adriatic League.
Last but not least, UNC’s senior leader and top perimeter defender, 21-year-old Seth Trimble, battled through some offensive woes early to finish with another well-rounded stat line — 13 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals — as the Tar Heels limited the Orange to a 42 percent field goal success rate, including just 18 percent from 3-point range.
While Carolina would love to finish a perfect 18-0 at the Smith Center this season — Louisville, Virginia Tech and Clemson are the Tar Heels’ final three visitors, all in the next nine days — they know that any postseason success will come away from home. In that sense, the Syracuse victory, especially without Wilson, was an important step in the right direction.
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Featured image via Associated Press/Adrian Kraus
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