The North Carolina Tar Heels have now won four straight games after holding on to beat Syracuse Monday night in the Dean Dome. The Tar Heels led by 20+ with 10 minutes left, but a late surge by the Orange cut the lead down to 6 late.
UNC was able to hold off due to some good free-throw shooting and defense at the end, but it was still a sweat. It's not the final 10 minutes that head coach Hubert Davis wanted to see.
With a few days in between now and when UNC hosts Duke, they will need to clean some things up. Before we get to that point, let's read what Hubert Davis had to say about his team's performance on Monday.
All quotes via Inside Carolina
On Syracuse ending the game on 37-14 run
“I put a lot of stock in it. We always talk about finishing possessions, finishing halves, finishing games, and that’s just unacceptable. I thought we were playing really well on both ends of the floor. I felt defensively, we were getting better throughout the game, especially second half. I thought we responded and came out on both ends of the floor. We were on point, and Syracuse is a great basketball team. Coach Autry is a fantastic coach, and you can see they’re extremely talented. But the last nine minutes and 32 seconds, just a departure of what allowed us to get the lead — taking good shots, taking care of the basketball, executing defensively, defending without fouling. Execution wise, defensively, boxing out, just different stuff like that, and they got it to six. And so we’ll watch the film and learn from it.”
On what he liked in the first 30 minutes
“I put a lot of stock in it. We always talk about finishing possessions, finishing halves, finishing games, and that’s just unacceptable. I thought we were playing really well on both ends of the floor. I felt defensively, we were getting better throughout the game, especially second half. I thought we responded and came out on both ends of the floor. We were on point, and Syracuse is a great basketball team. Coach Autry is a fantastic coach, and you can see they’re extremely talented. But the last nine minutes and 32 seconds, just a departure of what allowed us to get the lead — taking good shots, taking care of the basketball, executing defensively, defending without fouling. Execution wise, defensively, boxing out, just different stuff like that, and they got it to six. And so we’ll watch the film and learn from it.”
On not letting his players get too big headed when experiencing success
“Yeah, that’s difficult. Maybe I should text them or tweet or, I don’t know, the way that they communicate, but just the ability to stay locked in and be able to consistently do the things that are asked of you. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, but there’s a level of consistency, individually and as a team, that needs to be there to be successful. And I think our team is learning.”
This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: UNC Basketball: What Hubert Davis said after win over Syracuse