Isaiah Hicks’ career night propels UNC men's basketball to win over Syracuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Brice Johnson turned off his shower and put on a towel. So did Kennedy Meeks.

They walked out of the visitors’ bathroom in the Carrier Dome on Saturday night and looked for him. Not Marcus Paige, the undisputed leader of the No. 6 North Carolina men’s basketball team. Nor Justin Jackson, who almost missed UNC’s 84-73 win over Syracuse with a fever. They couldn’t see him anywhere.

Then they smiled.

Isaiah Hicks was surrounded — how could they possibly have seen him? All around him were recorders and cameras and the people wielding them. They could not see him, in his white towel on the bench by his locker, and he could not see them. But he heard them.

“Isaiah,” Meeks said, pointing a finger toward the mob, “I’m proud of you, boy.”

“Isaiah Hicks is a monster,” Johnson then howled.

Hicks stopped mid-sentence, something about pushing through foul trouble or focus or some other standard answer. He looked away from the cameras and the lights, to the ground. A smile escaped.

Nobody could blame him, not after his play Saturday night. When UNC needed him most, Hicks responded with the best game of his career.

Twenty-one points, eight rebounds — both career-highs — in Syracuse, for head coach Jim Boeheim’s return from a nine-game NCAA suspension, no less, in front of a sea of more than 26,000 orange shirts.

“Isaiah was big-time for us,” Coach Roy Williams said. “There’s no question about that.”

And despite early foul trouble, Hicks’ best play came in one of the game’s biggest moments.

With 8:28 left, Trevor Cooney sinks a 3-pointer. Syracuse’s lead grows, up to 56-50. It looks like the Orange could pull away, if they haven’t already.

UNC (15-2, 4-0 ACC) needs a basket. So Jackson dribbles down the court and passes to Johnson at the top of the post. Hicks runs to the basket, and Johnson feeds him the ball.

Foul — but Hicks, he keeps running.

He slams the ball through the hoop — one of his three dunks on the night — and heads to the line. The free throw drops, too. Syracuse (10-7, 0-4 ACC) leads by three, not six. Make that one, after a Jackson layup.

“(Williams) always told me I had the ability to make plays like that,” Hicks said. “He knows it’s me just going out there and actually doing it.”

Hicks was back to answering questions as Johnson and Meeks walked to their lockers. They looked back at their teammate one more time.

“We’re proud of him,” Johnson said. “Just glad he can step up in a time of need like that.”

Then they dried off and walked away. They still couldn’t see Hicks.

sports@dailytarheel.com