The Syracuse Orange basketball season suffered another rupture on Saturday as the Miami Hurricanes lacerated the Orange 85-76 inside the JMA Wireless Dome. The Orange defense hemorrhaged 44 points in the second half. It was the tenth second half the Orange have been outscored in this season.
Syracuse (12-8, 3-4) was outscored in the second half for hte tenth time this season, this time by Miami (16-4, 5-2) who was led by Malik Reneau’s 20 points.
Miami pounced on a disorganized Syracuse team from the
opening tip, jumping out to a 9-0 lead. Adrian Autry burned a timeout just three minutes and 27 seconds into the game as his team starting with 0-4 shooting and two turnovers. Nate Kingz scored on a drive and reverse pivot to give Orange fans a seat. Then back-to-back threes by George — the second on a selfless extra pass from Kingz — made it 11-8 Miami at the media timeout.
Autry staggered his substitutions this time, first with Akir Souare for William Kyle. Tyler Betsey and Kiyan Anthony followed but Souare picked up two early fouls. Freeman scored his first bucket on a floater as Miami punched back for a 9-2 run, owning a 20-10 lead at the second media timeout.
Starling came back into the game for George as Autry mixed in a possession of 2-3 zone with Anthony, Betsey, White and Kyle in the game. A defensive breakdown led to a wide open Reneau finish at the rim. Layups by Starling and Kyle, with a dunk by White off a lob sandwiched in between, trimmed Miami’s lead to four at the 7:52 mark.
Thereafter the zone gave Miami problems, however, as the defense forced three turnovers. Anthony buried a stepback three to cut it 27-25. An electric dunk by Anthony on a fastbreak knotted the game at 27 and brought the dome to its feet.
Miami drew Souare’s third foul on a score and he came out of the game. Jai Lucas also went zone against Syracuse. Donaldson three 37-29. Freeman, high-post, floater back to two possessions. Zone effectiveness fading as Tru Washington put back his own miss. Orange back to man, Henderson putback a miss. Kyle went for an and-one. Stop, foul on Kingz with two seconds left put Kingz on the line. He’d make both on the one-and-one. Allen launched a despreation shot that went long.
Miami led 41-36 at the intermission. The Hurricanes owned the glass 20-12. Syracuse won the points off turnovers battle 11-2. Miami had nine turnovers to Syracuse’s four.
Syracuse came out in zone to start the second half. Starling got going early for a pair of buckets inside after attacking the rim and Reneau got going for Miami on the other end. A tough, contested Freeman step-back at the end of the shot-clock made it 50-48 Hurricanes. That was as close as Syracuse would get the rest of the way.
Miami forced Syracuse into a pair of mistakes that led to two striaght fastbreak buckets. Against Miami’s 2-3 zone, Freeman found the softspot as his jumper from the high-post got him into double-figures. Autry mixed in man and zone defenses and once again staggered his substitutions in the second half. Anthony was first off the bench in the second half, replacing George. Betsey later came in for Freeman.
Lucas also had his guys vascillate between zone and man defense. Regardless of defensive scheme for Syracuse, Reneau continued his scoring as he got up to 16 points early in the second half.
Anthony then buried a deep three after a smooth pass-fake that got Reneau to bite. The 2-3 zone forced a steal and Starling went for a hard tomahawk dunk on the break, but missed it out of bounds. Timotej Malovich made SU pay with his second three of the half. Miami led 62-55 at the under-12 minute media timeout.
The Hurricanes opened up a ten point lead on a Henderson layup. With Freeman out, Syracuse struggled to score against the 2-3 zone without a designated high-post threat. Donaldson’s three extended the lead to 13 as Miami completed a 7-0 run. Autry was forced to burn a timeout with 9:41 to play.
Anthony stopped the bleeding after a missed dunk led to a runout for an uncontested layup. George score got the lead to single-digits. An and-one by Ernest Udeh Jr lifted the lead back to double-digits.
Betsey three back to eight with under eight minutes to play. The Orange struggled to rebound and complete stops out of the zone, giving up second-chance points. Freeman scored to keep within striking distance as Autry switched back to man defense. A Starling steal and transition lob found White for a transition dunk that cut it to eight.
Syracuse would press down the stretch Syracuse but couldn’t get the stops it needed to turn it into a two-possession game. Miami handled the pressure in crunch time and walked out of the dome with its 16th victory of the season. The Orange, meantime, dropped to 9-4 at home with the season in freefall.
Next up
Syracuse heads on the road to take on Quadir Copeland and the NC State Wolfpack. That game tips at 7 p.m. EST from the Lenovo Center and airs on ESPNU.
