Caleb Love believes veteran experience helped against Syracuse

North Carolina‘s veteran leadership and national championship experience was the reason why they were the preseason’s No. 1 team in the country, and now it’s paying off. They might have hit some bumps along the way, but things are starting to click.

As expected, the Tar Heel upperclassmen led the way for UNC during their 72-68 win over Syracuse Wednesday night.

“We’ve been in so many positions where we’re down — down more than that and came back. Leaky [Black] made the offensive rebound and made that pass the Pete [Nance],” UNC guard Caleb Love said postgame. “We did exactly what we needed to do to get the win.”

That was just one of the late-game heroics of the North Carolina veterans. Nance led all scorers with 21 including two late-game buckets while Armando Bacot scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Love himself nailed three 3-pointers to go along with five assists.

Something that does need improving on — free throws. UNC missed four of its last eight free throw attempts in the final minute of the game. The Tar Heels still came out with the win, but shooting 60 percent from the line with nine misses, some real problems can arise from that.

North Carolina isn’t a bad free throw shooting team, either. They’re shooting around 74 percent from the line, good for sixth in the ACC, which is right about where you’d expect they’d be to this point of the season. Still, the late missed free throws are inexcusable, especially during a tightly contested game.

They’ll have a week off before hosting Pitt on Feb. 1. UNC head caoach Hubert Davis hopes to use this opportunity to correct some of those wrongs and let his players heal both physically and mentally.

“I think this stretch, it’s been a lot,” Davis said postgame. “And I think this time, this week off, is good for two things. One, to be able to catch our breath and be able to heal our bodies and be able to rest. … My hope is this week we can get better, we can get healthier, we can get rested, and then be ready to go next week to start conference play again.”