The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team hung tough with the No. 3-ranked Houston Cougars before ultimately falling 78-74 in overtime. On the opening night of the Player’s Era Tournament, the Orange looked
like it belonged against college basketball’s best, all without its leading-scorer and top NBA prospect Donnie Freeman.
Houston’s Milos Uzan and Emanuel Sharp both went for 26 points. Tyler Betsey led the way for Syracuse with 16 points off the bench. William Kyle had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Syracuse’s usual starters all finished with double-digit scoring.
Free throw woes came back to bite the Orange in this one, having shot 12-29 from the charity stripe. Syracuse shot better from the floor 27-63 (43%) than it did from the line (41%).
Syracuse led by as many as nine in the first half. An 11-0 run put Houston back out in front 25-23. Houston led 37-34 at the break. In a twist, Houston led by 11 with 3:06 left in the game but an 11-0 run by Syracuse tied the game and sent this one into overtime. JJ Starling sparked the run along with William Kyle and Betsey hit a three to tie the game with 55 seconds left. Both teams had chances to take the lead but a three by Uzan went awry and Kyle had his shot blocked to set up overtime.
Ultimately Houston pulled away in extra time behind Sharp’s shooting.
To the takeaways:
The Orange can hang
Who had Syracuse going toe-to-toe with the No. 3 team in the country without its leading scorer?
The defense held up against Houston, limiting Kelvin Sampson’s club to 36% field goal shooting. The defense surrendered some open threes on the backside and Houston won the rebounding battle 49-43, but overall the defense was strong. That’s a great sign for a program that’s struggled to defend in the last half-decade in the midst of a transition vis-à-vis defensive identity.
This was a golden opportunity for Syracuse’s NCAA Tournament résumé that ultimately went begging. It won’t help in the quadrant one win category, but keeping the game competitive with the No. 3 team in the country will reflect well on analytics and NET.
There are no moral victories. At the same time, it’s an improved result for a program that was getting run off the floor at these events by 20+ point defeats in the last two years. If nothing else, it’s a good sign.
The Juicing Station showed up in the first half
Syracuse received significant contributions off its bench — otherwise known as The Juicing Station. Tyler Betsey came roaring off the bench to knock down three big threes in the first half. Anthony scored nine points of his own. Those two combined for 20 first half points, outscoring the Cougars’ bench 20-5.
Those contributions slowed in the second half but Betsey had two timely buckets down the stretch, including the three that tied the game.
Syracuse’s bench outscored Houston’s 26-7.
But the rotation shortens
We know Adrian Autry wants to go deep into his bench and play nine or ten guys. Acknowledging the revolving door of Syracuse injuries, the roster hasn’t been at full strength at any point on the young season. The Orange were down a player without Freeman. But with the stakes high against Houston in Vegas, Autry bet on his starters and a few key bench players.
Syracuse looked like a Boeheim-coached team in conference play as only seven guys played double-digit minutes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Free throws matter; board woes persist
Brent Axe is beating that drum. Syracuse shot better from the floor (43%) than it did at the free throw line (41%). In a game decided on slim margins, the most obvious place to look is at the charity stripe.
It might be easy to select any given section box score and see how the outcome of the game could’ve been different. For example, Houston grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and scored 21 second-chance points to Syracuse’s 12.
But if Syracuse just shoots a meager 70% from the line, that would’ve been eight more points on the night. You can do the math from there on how costly those free throw misses were. This is a trend now for this team. The Orange is shooting 56% from the free throw as team, that ranks No. 364 in the nation.
