{"id":120777,"date":"2016-01-09T23:05:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T04:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=120777"},"modified":"2016-01-16T14:59:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-16T19:59:22","slug":"nifty-assists-key-uncs-comeback-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/?p=120777","title":{"rendered":"Nifty assists key UNC’s comeback win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"uncjohnsonsyracuse\"<\/a>Brice Johnson went from having his best scoring and rebounding earlier in the week to getting a career-high eight assists, several of them to Isaiah Hicks who led North Carolina with a career-tying 21 points en route to an 84-73 win at Syracuse. (1\/9)<\/p>\n

Trailing by six at 56-50 just past midway through the second half, the Tar Heels put together a string of highlight-reel assists to take a lead and they never looked back. Justin Jackson got it to Johnson at the free throw line and he immediately zipped a pass to Hicks, breaking down the baseline, for a dunk. And he drew the foul. After the free throw, the Heels trailed 56-53.<\/p>\n

Half a minute later, UNC’s Nate Britt came up with a steal and pushed it forward to Jackson for a dunk to draw the Heels within a point.<\/p>\n

After a Syracuse timeout, the Tar Heels continued the assist onslaught as Paige lobbed a pass over and across the paint to Jackson, who banked it in for a 57-56 lead.<\/p>\n

With the Heels up 59-58, they went on a 16-8 run to take a commanding nine-point lead at 75-66 with just two minutes to play. During the stretch, Joel Berry got just Carolina’s third three pointer of the game. And Johnson continued the assist barrage with a pair to Hicks, who finished the plays with dunks.<\/p>\n

“It was high-low all day,” Hicks said. “I have to give that to Brice.”<\/p>\n

UNC coach Roy Williams agreed that the Heels did a good job getting it to Johnson high up in the paint and he made some good passes down low.<\/p>\n

The Tar Heels shot nearly 65 percent in the second half against a Syracuse zone that bothered them in first half. Carolina scored 51 points in the second half, compared to just 33 in the first half when it was tied at 33-all.<\/p>\n

For more on the game plus a box score, please click here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brice Johnson went from having his best scoring and rebounding earlier in the week to getting a career-high eight assists, several of them to Isaiah…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-north-carolina-tar-heels","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-80-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120779,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120777\/revisions\/120779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}