HOUSTON — Syracuse’s defense — its 2-3 zone, its full-court press, its mind-boggling ability to shrink the court so that 10 out-stretched arms seem to cover the whole thing — had guided it to this point. To two lopsided wins in St. Louis. To two dramatic comebacks in Chicago.

To the Final Four.

And as the Orange held on to a fleeting hope that it could pull off one more miracle, as North Carolina started to bend then nearly tear at the seams, the defense had help up. The Tar Heels had missed all 12 of their 3-point attempts and a Malachi Richardson 3, with 9:48 left in SU’s season, shaved UNC’s lead to seven. The offense was starting to click and Syracuse needed stops. It needed to keep the perimeter locked down. It needed one more stand, at least until a meeting with Villanova in the national championship on Monday night.

But it took 22 seconds for Marcus Paige to, if only momentarily, snap his team out of its shooting slumber. From there, Paige made two more late 3s to help top-seeded North Carolina (33-6, 14-4 Atlantic Coast) hold off 10th-seeded SU (23-14, 9-9) in a 83-66 win at NRG Stadium on Saturday night. The Tar Heels ultimately finished 4-for-17 from beyond the arc, with three of those makes coming from their senior leader, and it seemed that each one of Paige’s 13 points help keep the Orange from another come-from-behind upset.

“At that moment, I wanted somebody in a North Carolina uniform to make one,” UNC head coach Roy Williams said of when Paige hit the team’s first 3. “There’s no question I got a little excited, because (Paige) had done so many good things and hadn’t been able to make a shot.

“… I got a little excited on the sideline. If I think about, if I had time to reflect, I think it’s appropriate that it was Marcus Paige who did that.”

Paige’s first four career games against Syracuse are easy to categorize from an individual performance standpoint.

Very good: 22 points in a January 2015 win, 17 points in a January 2014 loss.

And very, very bad: Three points in a win on Jan. 9, six points in a win on Feb. 29.

Saturday was the first time that Paige, based on raw statistics, fell in the middle of those extremes. He scored an efficient 13 and three of his teammates outscored him. He had three assists while backcourt mate Joel Berry II notched a game-high 10. He also committed a team-high three turnovers, which were ill-advised but far from crippling.

But it was the timing of his shots, with no bearing on the box score but a great effect on history, that made him the one to end the Syracuse magic and give his team a chance at the national title. There were moments, however short, where it seemed the Orange could stage one more late-game rally. Moments when the press forced a turnover, or a shot improbably rolled through the rim, or a loose ball finally bounced in SU’s favor. Moments that could only make Gonzaga and Virginia, watching this Tournament unfold from afar, sweat all over again.

Yet there was Paige — calm, cool and connecting.

His first 3 bumped the lead from seven to 10. His second one pushed the lead to 13. And his last one, three minutes after that with 2:53 left in the game, did the same and pushed Syracuse away from one of the improbable national championship berths in college basketball history.

The Tar Heels’ 13 missed 3s were noticeable. Some were particularly ugly. Some, thanks to microphones mounted on the rims, were particularly loud. But Paige’s makes were particularly important, outweighing all those bricks and lifting North Carolina above the late-game drama the Orange has lived on this postseason.

“It’s tough, you know, because you put so much effort into stopping their inside players who are very talented,” SU guard Michael Gbinije said. “And that kind of makes you vulnerable to the outside and when they’re knocking them down you have to play honestly. Marcus made us to do that, and I thought he really helped them pick us apart at that point.”

Published on April 3, 2016 at 1:24 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse