The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers on Monday night. Indiana took down Syracuse 83-80 in an exciting college basketball game from Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Syracuse led for much of the first half but Indiana took control in the second. Trailing by three with less than five seconds left, Syracuse forced a turnover in its full-court press and earned a chance to tie the game. Without a timeout, the Orange struggled to execute
from a baseline out-of-bounds and had to lob the ball up top to avoid a five-second call. Kiyan Anthony forced a deep three that went awry and Indiana secured the victory.
Hoosier guards Darren Harris and Markus Burton led all scorers with 20 points each. Jaedan Mustaf had 18 points and 7 rebounds. Syracuse was led by back up point guard Ryan Moesch who scored 19 points and dished out 6 assists off the bench. Anthony had 16 points and 3 assists while Sadiq White added 13 points.
Syracuse led 38-34 at the half as the Orange took the advantage from outside while Indiana controlled the game inside. Syracuse shot 13-27 (48%) and 5-9 from three (56%) at the half.
“The margin for error is so small. This one hurts bad. I think we’re the better team,” Gavin Doty said post-game. “At the end of the day you gotta win the basketball game so it hurts.”
Syracuse battled foul trouble in this game as Luke Wilson picked up third just seconds into the second half. Mark Morano scored two quick jumpers to start the game but sat much of the first half with two fouls. He picked up his third just a minute into the second half and didn’t return to the game.
Syracuse’s offensive attack was strong as the Orange shot 28-55 from the floor (51%) and 8-19 from three (42%) and 16-20 from the free throw line (80%). Despite a stronger low-post presence from Indiana, Syracuse was able to out-score the Hoosiers in the paint 32-28, mostly off drives and the bench outscored IU 40-11.
“A lot of good,” Gerry McNamara said post-game. “But I’m not in this for a lot of good. We’ve got to get over the hump.”
To the takeaways.
Defense waxes and wanes; rebounding troubles illuminated
Syracuse came out and played strong defense in the first half, limiting Indiana to 13-35 from the floor (37%) and 3-14 from three (21%). McNamara put the 6-foot-5 Garwey Dual on Markus Burton. Darren Harris was held in check with 6 points on 1-5 shooting in the first half.
That would all change in the second half.
Harris fueled a self-directed 8-0 run out of the break. He’d finish with 20 points after finding rhythm in the second half as he and Burton got going. Indiana shot 13-27 from the floor as a team and 6-11 from deep in the second half behind those two guards.
That, and the rebounding woes from the preseason resurfaced against a much larger, more physically-imposing team.
Indiana had 37-28 rebounding advantage with 14 of those coming on the offensive end. Syracuse struggled to close out defensive stops by securing rebounds, particularly in the first half. Indiana converted those 14 offensive rebounds into 12 second chance points.
“Ygitolu, he’s as big as a human being as there is in college,” McNamara said. “He’s a load down there. It really changed the game — I thought we did a really good job defending a cross-action that we worked on and they called Luke for his third foul. We had to get him out.”
Two of Syracuse’s bigger bodies and better rebounders, Francis Folefac and Tasman Goodrick, did not see time in this one. The Orange will likely struggle rebounding the ball this year against teams with bigger front lines so Syracuse will have to make up for that in other areas, such as turnovers. Indiana had 11 turnovers to Syracuse’s 12 but had a 20-8 points off turnovers edge over the Orange.
Ryan and Kiyan show
Syracuse’s second half firepower was fueled by the two Orange guards off the bench in Moesch and Anthony. The two Orange guards combined for 35 points on the night.
Anthony is well-known at this point in year two at Syracuse. The freshman Moesch introduced himself to a wider college basketball audience on Monday night with his offensive play.
He had the play of the night when he attacked the 7-foot-2 Samet Yigitoglu for an and-one. Moesch noted post-game that Indiana was playing in drop coverage and he felt he could attack the space. So he did. Undaunted.
Moesch played with his usual moxie. He was able to attack off ball screens and find teammates for easy dunks (first half to Abdramane Siby, second half to Luke Wilson). He took a courageous corner three early in the shot clock and buried it to give Syracuse the lead back 61-59 with eight minutes remaining. Late in the game he knocked down a baseline jumper to keep Syracuse in striking distance and he made two free throws with 21 seconds left to once more get the Orange to within a possession.
“He just glides. He’s a free-mover, he’s twitchy,” McNamara expanded on Moesch. “He moves right and when you get him in the ball screen with space he can make special things happen. When he makes threes he’s impossible to defend. He is. If he makes the three he’s got to become consistently better at it but when he makes threes he’s almost damn near unguardable.”
Anthony found rhythm from inside and out by knocking down shots in the lane. He sought his usual contact in traffic and created space for shots. He knocked down his floater and was a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Anthony made a three in each half, his second a long one late in the clock.
“He’s working. He’s worked hard to become a better player,” McNamara said of Anthony. He’s worked hard to change his body and become a better defender. He’s playing complete team ball. He’s bought in — not that he always wasn’t — I think he really has turned the corner in terms of like, he’s all-in on winning. I think that takes a little bit of pressure off.“
There wasn’t as much defense in the second half but Syracuse two guards off the bench combined for 35 points on 10-22 shooting including 5-9 from three and 10-11 from the free throw line.
That gave the Syracuse bench a 29 point edge over Indiana’s.
Missed chances
Syracuse had a golden opportunity to get a key non-conference win but will have to swallow this one as a missed chance. The Orange have five games against Power Five opponents on its non-conference schedule and needs to secure at least two of those to build an NCAA Tournament résumé without seriously overachieving in ACC play.
One of those opportunities is off the table and a win over No. 13 St. John’s at Madison Square Garden is a tall order. Syracuse should be competitive against Oklahoma, Providence and Rutgers. Two of those wins will have to come from that group of four games.
“As the season progresses we’ve got to continue to grow and evolve and put ourself in position just like we did tonight,” McNamara said. “But I said right when I got this job that we are going to be in position. We’re going to fight and be in position to win games. We lost a heartbreaker tonight. Now we’ve got to learn from it and hopefully as we move forward we continue to get better and win these games.”
Syracuse will compete; Gerry Mac can coach
Is there any doubt Syracuse is going to compete under McNamara? Since McNamara has taken over we’ve heard how important it is for his team to compete on every possession in every game and to get guys who are going to fight for the product. Non-negotiable. There were mistakes and two crucial runs that were given up in each half of the game, and Syracuse played hard for a full game.
McNamara has all the intangibles as a head coach from leadership to motivation and instilling belief in his players. But he also brings credentials as an offensive mind who runs a sophisticated modern offense.
In the halfcourt Syracuse emptied out the side at various points, particularly with Moesch in the game, and opened up double-gaps. The Orange scored 80 points on 67 possessions in this one, good for 1.2 points per possession on the game.
Dom Chiappone contributed with the reporting of this article.
