Five North Carolina players scored in double figures as the Tar Heels ran past Syracuse, beating the Orange by the widest margin in history between the two schools, 103-67. (1/13)

Playing at home for the first time in two weeks, the Heels put on a show for the fans, leading by 22 points at the half and getting up by as many as 39 points in the second half.

RJ Davis led the way with 22 points and a career-high five steals but two players managed double-doubles. In only 16 minutes, Armando Bacot came up with 16 points and 11 rebounds while Harrison Ingram followed suit with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Jalen Washington with 11 and Jae’lyn Withers with 10 rounded out the double-figure scoring.

But it was once again the defense that most impressed UNC coach Hubert Davis. “Defensively, we were really good,” Coach Davis said, pointing to the team’s 13 steals and 53-30 rebounding edge.

Offensively, Carolina scored 58 points in the paint compared to just 32 for Syracuse. “We want to dominate points in the paint,” Coach Davis said. “We didn’t settle for the jump shot – we worked inside out.”

Appropriately, the Tar Heels got their first double-digit lead when Washington rebounded a miss and put it in to put Carolina up 17-7. A nice pass inside from Elliott Cadeau to Ingram gave the Heels a 20-point lead at 36-16.

After surving a 9-0 run early in the second half, the Tar Heels worked the lead up to 30 at 73-43 on a three from Davis from the left corner. The largest lead of the game came with 8:37 to go when Washington sank a pair of free throws to make it 90-51.

Various subs played the last eight minutes as Carolina had a hard time scoring 10 points in those eight minutes to reach the century mark.

Judah Mintz finished with 21 points to lead Syracuse, now 11-5 overall and 2-3 in the ACC, but he took 17 shots to get there.

The Tar Heels improve to 13-3 overall and 5-0 in the ACC with a home game coming up Wednesday against Louisville.

For the box score and to see more on the game, please click here.