Anthony ‘Cat’ Barber left the game with just under 16 minutes to play and North Carolina State down by 14. As time ticked away, Barber couldn’t do anything to help N.C. State pull of the upset.

When he returned six minutes later, the Wolfpack trailed by 12. All Syracuse had to do was hold on for the final stretch and Barber only hit one more shot the rest of the way.

Barber was a marked man and the conference’s leading scorer never got into a rhythm.

“When you’re leading the conference in scoring, you definitely have to highlight that guy,” Syracuse guard Frank Howard said.

Entering Saturday, Barber averaged 23.5 points and had scored at least 26 in seven of the past 10 games. But against Syracuse’s stingy zone, Barber scored 15 and the Orange (19-10, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) took down the Wolfpack (14-15, 4-12), 75-66, Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

For just the third time all season, Barber hit fewer than four field goals and for the second time in conference play, Barber played 34 or fewer minutes.

With seven minutes left in the first half, Barber hit a 3 from the wing on Tyler Roberson’s side of the zone. Getting in front of him from that spot was part of Syracuse’s game plan, Howard said, and Boeheim pulled Roberson for his defensive lapses.

The 3 was part of a 5-0 personal run for Barber, who then hit two of his eight made free throws. N.C. State was within just four and Barber was at the forefront of the Wolfpack’s comeback.

But Barber never gained any more momentum the rest of the game and the Wolfpack never regained the lead it held three minutes into the contest.

“You got to get back on him and keep him out in front,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “It’s hard for point guards to score (against the zone). Point guards generally don’t score against us a lot and Barber didn’t.”

When Howard was in the game later in the first half, he stuck a hand in Barber’s face as he attempted another jumper to cut the lead to less than five. But the ball bounced off the front of the rim and into Dajuan Coleman’s hands.

After returning to the game with nine minutes left, Barber added eight more points. The impact he had after spending six minutes on the bench was far less than before.

No matter what the Wolfpack tried with Barber, it resulted in one of his worst games of the season.

“We tried moving him to the wing and they did a good job of not letting him get into the paint,” N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried said. “I thought that was the biggest thing.”

Published on February 27, 2016 at 7:15 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds