SYRACUSE, NY – North Carolina put forth its best performance of the season in defeating Syracuse 92-79 on Saturday at the Carrier Dome giving the Tar Heels consecutive wins for just the third time since Thanksgiving.

Garrison Brooks led the way for the Heels with 26 points and 14 rebounds, including hitting all eight of his free throw attempts, while Cole Anthony scored 25 points, handed out seven assists and managed the offense at a high level.

Christian Keeling added 18 points off the bench as the Tar Heels improved to 12-17 overall and 5-13 in the ACC. The Orange dropped to 16-13 and 9-9.

Here are 5 Takeaways from UNC’s win at Syracuse:

Perhaps Carolina’s best stretch of the season came midway through the first half when the Tar Heels executed a 20-2 run to take a 33-17 lead. It began with a lob dunk by Garrison Brooks from Cole Anthony and was followed by a Christian Keeling jumper.

Brooks then got another lob from Anthony he laid in, Keeling hit another jumper, a 3-pointer by Anthony from the left corner (Syracuse called timeout), Keeling yet again, Justin Pierce a jumper inside the zone, a Keeling 3 and jumper after a feed from Anthony capped the run.

Keeling had 11 points in the run on 4-for-5 shooting, plus he forced a turnover defending on the perimeter, and Anthony handed out three assists.

“Christian Keeling, early in the year he had an ability to score but his shot wasn’t going in, his 3-point shot wasn’t going in, he was turning it over and he wasn’t guarding very well,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said. “And I said ‘Son, you’ve got to give me something to hang my hat on and put you in the game.’

“And in the last eight games he’s averaging in double figures, gotten a little bit better defensively… so making shots for him was really important tonight.”

UNC scored on 9 of 13 possessions in the run.

Syracuse’s well-known and sometimes vaunted 2-3 zone just doesn’t bother the Tar Heels. Once again, they had a ton of success getting good looks against the zone, using ball movement, great vision, anticipation and utilizing the few pockets inside the zone that can be exploited, which led to looks seemingly everywhere.

Anthony had two assists to Brooks on lobs to the weak side of the zone and the Heels missed two others, but it was there and they made Syracuse defend it. Cuts to the basket, dump downs galore and threes against a rotating defense were the norm on the afternoon.

Carolina assisted on 25 of its 33 field goals with many kickouts to the perimeter for many of its 11 made 3-pointers.

“They play a zone and you’ve got to move it around and keep moving it around and not be selfish and take shots that you shouldn’t take,” Williams said. “Don’t be concerned about the shot clock because if you just move it and move it and get better spacing then you’ve got a chance to get a better shot.”

UNC hasn’t scorched it much from the perimeter this season, and the Tar Heels didn’t do much from outside in the first half, making just 2 of 12 from the perimeter by the intermission. But they exploded to start the second half hitting 6 of 7 attempts over the first 6:02 of the period. The Heels eventually hit nine for the half and finished the day 11-for-26 from beyond the arc.

Anthony was 7-for-11 from outside, as he became the first Heel to drain seven in a game since Cam Johnson did so at Wake Forest last season. UNC’s 11 threes is a high for the season and the nine in the second half exceeded their previous high for a half by three.

“We have some good stretches in practice when we’ve shot it great, we just haven’t shot it great in a game all year,” Williams said. “But we’ve had some stretches in practice and I’m, ‘Why don’t we do that in the games, guys?’

“That was what we needed today.”

How many times have the Tar Heels built double-digit leads in the second halves of games this season just to see them disappear, sometimes in a flash? That didn’t happen here Saturday.

Actually, it didn’t happen Tuesday night versus N.C. State, either, and while the Heels looked a bit shaky at times late versus the Wolfpack, there was none of that here on this day. Carolina built a 17-point lead in the first half and only a few times afterward did the Orange get the margin to single digits.

Carolina led by 13 with 14:50 left, by 12 with 10 minutes left, by 14 with five minutes remaining and won by 13.

“I think that speaks to our improvement and attention to detail and learning from the mistakes that we’ve had in the past. I think we did a great job tonight or not turning the ball over when they started pressing us… and I think we did a good job of being smart with what we were doing.”

Not only did Carolina outrebound Syracuse 39-29, including 13-10 on the offensive glass. But it’s what the Heels did when grabbing their own misses that’s so impressive and one of the keys to earning a victory.

UNC outscored the Orange 22-10 in second-chance points with a couple of made baskets from 3-point range on kickouts. Carolina enforcing its will down low on offense and getting after the glass helped get Syracuse big man Marek Dolezaj in foul trouble, limiting him to 19 minutes and only four shot attempts.

“The rebounding battle I thought was going to be huge for us to do a better job there,” Williams said. “Second-chance points, we had 22 to their 10.”