By Niko Tamurian
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 11:10 p.m.
Read more: SU, North Carolina, Syracuse Basketball, Syracuse Orange, North Carolina Tar Heels, NCAA Basketball, College, NCAA Basketball
If you said you saw this coming, let's just say you're among the overwhelming minority. Sure, many SU basketball fans thought the Orange had a chance, a real good chance to beat #4 North Carolina, but not too many forsaw the absolute drubbing the Orange put to the Tar Heels.
Syracuse took an early lead on North Carolina by a score of 8-0 and then 11-2, but the Tar Heels rallied and the rest of the first half was back and forth until UNC took a 39-37 halftime lead. The Orange was on a mission in the 2nd half opening the latter portion of the game on a 22-1 run! That run gave Syracuse a remarkable 59-40 lead. The lead stretched to 20 at 62-42 at one point until UNC went on a run of its own, an 18-6 outburst to be exact to close the gap to 68-60. Syracuse though was not about to let the home away from home crowd at Madison Square Garden be dissapointed, and responded with by outscoring UNC 13-2 over the next four minutes, the run was capped off by an emphatic Kris Joseph slam.
Joseph scored 10 points, 6 of those came from beyond the arc and grabbed 6 rebounds. Wes Johnson led the 'Cuse in scoring with 27 points and snagged 9 rebounds. Andy Rautins stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, 7 steals, 7 rebounds and 7 assists. The two-headed monster of Arinze Onuaku and Rick Jackson combined for 22 points and 10 rebounds.
No doubt, this team looks fantastic and is much better than its borderline top-25 ranking. And No matter what happens over the course of the next 5 months, Orange fans will never forget the night their team took it to might North Carolina, and was triumphant.