If you stayed up late to watch Syracuse Orange men’s basketball’s 71-63 win over Saint Joseph’s on Thursday night, you probably went to bed disappointed in the team’s performance. It was a remarkably unconvincing
victory, with the lead never stretching past ten points, and even that didn’t come until the final minutes.
Syracuse dropped back down five spots in KenPom to 67th, just one spot above the preseason ranking. Tyler Betsey led the team with 16 points in just 22 minutes, making three of his five threes. Nate Kingz also made three threes, but nobody else on the SU roster made one. William Kyle had another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Here are a few takeaways.
Sluggish Start
The Orange didn’t make a field goal until after the first media timeout, when Nate Kingz connected on a triple from the right corner. Syracuse knows that it’s not a great, or even good, half court offense, so early in the game, the team tried to push the ball up the floor at every opportunity. However, they didn’t have the court spacing and ability to do so, and it ended in some wasted possessions.
Defensively, Syracuse was allowing Saint Joseph’s to play its game, and talented sophomore Deuce Jones hit his stride throughout the first half. The Hawks went on a 6-0 spurt to grab a 14-7 lead before J.J. Starling broke into the lane and put in a floater over the SJU defender with 13:40 to play in the first half. It was the first true half-court field goal that Syracuse had, as Kingz’s three came off of a scramble drill play.
Poor on the Glass
When you’re as aggressive on the perimeter and protecting the rim as this Syracuse defense is, you’re going to give up a lot of offensive rebounds. Saint Joseph’s had 14 offensive boards and scored 13 second-chance points. The Orange are honestly lucky that the Hawks couldn’t throw the ball into the basket on a few golden second-chance opportunities, or else SU could’ve come out on the losing end of this one.
Syracuse’s physicality seemed to wear St. Joe’s down by the end of the game. The Hawks finished shooting just 36% from the field.
No Offensive Rhythm (For Anybody)
There were very few stretches in this game where a team connected offensively and went on a run. Usually, even in slugfests like this one, there’s a minute-or-so stretch where a team makes a few shots in a row and takes control of the game. The closest thing that this game had to that was an and-1 by Kiyan Anthony and a triple from Nate Kingz to break a 43-43 tie on back-to-back possessions.
Syracuse never trailed or was tied from that point forward, and it came after Saint Joseph’s — the nation’s top foul shooting team — missed a few free throws. Down the stretch, Syracuse had plenty of empty possessions, but came through with a bunch of big shots in the lane. Tyler Betsey finished his night with a layup that extended Syracuse’s lead to eight with three minutes left before fouling out.
Kiyan is Struggling
After starting his college career with three straight 15 point games, Syracuse freshman Kiyan Anthony has not scored more than ten points in the last six games. In fact, he’s only reached double digits once. Anthony scored six points for the Orange on Thursday on one-for-six from the field, making four of his five free throw attempts.
Since his 18-point performance against Drexel, Anthony is shooting just 27% from the field and 13% from three. As a pleasant surprise with his maturity early in the season, especially when J.J. Starling missed time due to injury, Anthony has the ability to unlock Syracuse’s half-court offense with his tough shotmaking ability. Although recently, more often than not, it has become a crutch on the Orange’s game. It’s still early, and he’s shown plenty, but Anthony has to dig himself out of his first slump.
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What were your takeaways from last night?
