Coming off a win for the first time in a month, North Carolina heads to Syracuse on Saturday to face the Orange at the Carrier Dome for a 4 pm tip.

The Tar Heels are coming off a win over N.C. State on Tuesday night and now stand at 11-17 overall and 4-13 in the ACC while the Orange have won consecutive games, including 72-49 at Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, and are 16-12 and 9-8 in the ACC. Jim Boeheim’s team is tied for fifth in the ACC.

Here are our picks:

It’s going to be hard to beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, but if Garrison Brooks can dominate in the paint and the foul line, UNC can win this game. Prediction: UNC 70, Syracuse 64.

North Carolina will take tons of confidence going to Syracuse this weekend. It’s the last stretch of ACC play, so the Tar Heels will have to come ready to play a complete game if they want to pull this off, but I got the Orange squeaking this out. Prediction: Syracuse 78, UNC 75.

Carolina gets another game against a team on the NCAA Tournament bubble so it will be up to the Heels to try to play spoiler again. Despite the Tar Heels' poor record, there isn't a whole lot of difference between them and the Orange on paper so it comes down again to who makes the plays that need to be made at winning time. Whichever team does that will be the team that comes away with the win. Prediction Syracuse 75, UNC 71.

A much-needed win for the Tar Heels came in their last game against N.C. State, but now it’s time to see if they can build on it and win consecutive games for the first time since late January. Syracuse has been up and down all season, but the Carrier Dome is always a tough place to play and the Orange will want nothing more than to beat UNC. I don’t think they do, though. Prediction: UNC 78, Syracuse 75.

This is a game the Tar Heels can win. The Heels have been playing fairly well and have lost a ton of games by collapsing late and missing free throws. Against N.C. State that all changed. Hopefully, they proved to themselves that they can close out games and this becomes something they can build on. The Heels can avoid a complete disaster of a season if they can play well over the last couple of weeks. Prediction: UNC 83, Syracuse 76.

The Tar Heels have had success versus Syracuse in the past because they’ve played well offensively in the high post against the Orange’s 2-3 zone defense. That could be a problem Saturday and so might dealing with Cuse’s perimeter shooting. This is certainly a winnable game for the Heels when they have Brooks, Anthony and Robinson on the floor along with Christian Keeling, who is clearly playing his best hoops of the season. Tough matchup for these Heels. Prediction: Syracuse 70, UNC 64.

Average THI prediction: UNC 73.5, Syracuse 73.