North Carolina will play its fourth road game in its last five contests Saturday when the Tar Heels visit Syracuse for a 6:00 PM tip at JMA Wireless Dome.

The Heels entering coming off their most disheartening performance of the season, an 85-65 loss at Clemson. UNC has lost five of its last seven games with the two wins at home in overtime over Boston College and by a point at home to struggling Pitt.

The Orange enter coming off a 91-84 loss at hapless Miami and have also lost five of their last seven games.

Carolina is 14-11 overall and 7-6 in the ACC. Syracuse is 11-14 and 5-9.

Here are 5 Keys for UNC to beat Syracuse:

A fair question was asked of Hubert Davis and some players following the game at Clemson on Monday night about the apparent lack of fight in the team and if it was broken. The desperation that helped the Tar Heels beat Pitt two days earlier had no presence at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Are the Heels broken? Do they have any fight left?

If so, that will show at the dome. Not so much early, but once the Orange go on a run. How long will it be sustained? What do the Tar Heels do to stop it?

Without the above, no other pre-game observations matter.

Neither team lights it up from the perimeter, but both have been known to go off from time to time. And the winner Saturday, if both teams play at a similar degree of want, could be the team that shoots better from the perimeter.

The Orange average attempting 19.2 and hits 32.1%. Carolina attempts 22 per contest and hits 32.3%. It may give the Heels a slight edge that RJ Davis has been back to his usual shooting self over the last seven games, but he alone can’t lead the Heels to victory.

He must get help, and with Carolina shooting 33.3% as a team over the last five games while allowing opponents to shoot 48% (49-for-102) in the same stretch, this clearly must be a group effort on both ends of the floor.

Make that a seven-game stretch now with Ian Jackson averaging only 7.4 points and failing to score in double figures six times. He is 0-for-11 from the field in the last two games, has not scored from the floor in the first half of the last three contests, nor has he hit a field goal before halftime in four of the last seven contests.

If UNC is going to beat anyone on the road, it must get production from Jackson because nobody else has proven they have the ability to regularly help Davis with the scoring load.

The Heels are averaging a paltry 66.8 points over the last four games. They simply must get more offense, and unlocking Jackson is a key in the remainder of the season carrying any lasting value.

Syracuse ranks a tad higher than UNC in offensive and defensive rebounding percentages. In watching them, they appear even, so much like the perimeter shooting battle, it doesn’t look like either team has a true edge on the glass.

So, if the same team wins the 3-point shooting and rebounding aspects of the game, that team will check the winner’s box.

UNC has lost its last four games on the road. The loss at Wake Forest was the result of a late Deacons’ run that was too much for the Heels to overcome with a push in the final seconds. The loss at Pitt was with the Panthers closing out the Heels 14-2 for an 8-point victory.

Carolina was blown out by Duke by 17 points in a game that had a 32-point margin with 9 minutes left, and then it fell by 20 on Monday at Clemson. The Tigers led by 26 twice in the second half.

UNC’s two road games before that stretch were 1 and 2-point escapes at Notre Dame, thanks to a 4-point play by Elliot Cadeau and a missed open layup by Irish guard Markus Burton, and at NC State when Jalen Washington’s blocked shot as time expired saved the day for the Heels.

The Irish have lost six times since and State has not won since and is currently riding a nine-game losing streak. And one last note, Pitt’s only home win since January 4 is over the Tar Heels.

So, expecting the Tar Heels to waltz into the dome and leave with a win isn’t considering their last five weeks of action. Can they flip the script?