SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse led wire-to-wire in a 85-47 win over Binghamton on opening night. The Orange jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first minutes, then used another 10-0 run in the first half to expand out to 32-14 at halftime. In the second half, SU opened up an even bigger lead, shooting nearly 70% from the field and dropping 53 points in 20 minutes. Donnie Freeman led the team with 20 points. Naithan George had 14 points, eight assists, and five steals. Here are a few takeaways
Early energy
While the exhibitions — particularly the Pace game — started with nervous energy, Syracuse came out as the aggressor against Binghamton on Monday night. The Orange did not let that happen. From the very start, it was clear which team was the aggressor, and which team wasn’t.
“You never want to start a game slow,” Freeman said. “You just want to ignite a run early and try to get some energy up and carry that momentum through the rest of the game.”
“I thought we played scared,” Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders said. “We had no aggressiveness; we just looked like we had no confidence. They weren’t letting us get into anything we wanted to do, we were holding onto the ball way too much.”
The Orange jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, and then pushed the lead out to 20-4. In that stretch, they forced tons of turnovers and limited shot attempts for the Bearcats. It was arguably the most suffocating defensive stretch of Adrian Autry’s tenure at the helm of the program.
William Kyle’s two offensive rebounds on one play exemplified that, as Orange players were running around like maniacs to find the ball early. The crowd was into it from the start, and the bench was as well. All four Syracuse assistant coaches were on their feet and motivating the group from the sideline all game long.
Monday’s performance may have been the closest Syracuse has looked to playing Adrian Autry’s vision throughout his tenure.
“It was close to (the vision),” Autry said. “We still got some more work to do, but it was close.”
10-0 runs
Syracuse had two killshot runs in the first half of the game. A kill shot is a 10-point scoring run, and according to Evan Miyakawa’s research, teams that have more 10-0 runs in a game than their opponents win 82% of the time.
Last season, the Orange had just SIX 10-0 runs all season, conceding 18. The -12 kill shot margin was the worst in the ACC. Perhaps the two from Monday can be a sign of things to come.
Turnover margin
Not only did the Orange have the worst kill shot margin in the ACC last season, but they also had the lowest turnover margin, ranking 338th out of 364 Division I teams with 91 more turnovers than their opponents. On Monday, Syracuse turned it over just five times, and forced 22 Binghamton turnovers, including 15 in the first half.
That’s good for a +17 turnover margin.
“We want to stay in that ballpark between the five, no more than ten turnover range,” Freeman said. Becuase that takes away possessions from us. And when we start to play against higher-level opponents, those possessions count.“
Lob city
William Kyle scored 16 points. He had seven slam dunks. Last season, he had 28 dunks all year — which is still a good number considering the amount of minutes he played — but he’s on pace to match that mark before the Orange go to Las Vegas.
“It feels good to be back out there playing more minutes,” Kyle said. “Just to be able to showcase that, it means the world to me.”
He caught a few lobs from Nait George, as well as a lob from Kiyan Anthony. It made for a highlight-reel performance.
“On the first day I played with (Nait) George,” Kyle said. “He threw me a lob from half court. I don’t think I’ve ever caught a lob from half court from anyone. So I feel like it was just natural. And that’s kudos to him, he’s an elite point guard.”
Filling Starling’s minutes
Once JJ Starling went down, Syracuse had to scrap together some lineups to make it through the 40 minutes. Kiyan Anthony was the main replacement, stepping up with 15 points in his freshman debut. He made a few smooth buckets, and even threw down a dunk in the blowout win.
“As soon as (JJ) went down,” Anthony said. “Coach Red came up to me and told me I’m gonna have to step in there and keep up the energy. I feel like we do that every day in practice. We go at each other.”
He says that his confidence “goes through the roof” when he hits his first few shots, as he did on Monday night.
The Orange also gave eleven minutes to Bryce Zephir, and while he didn’t score, he grabbed three rebounds, dished out three assists, and was fairly solid on both ends. Autry said Starling “will be fine,” but Zephir showed that at least in these buy games, he can hold his own for short spurts.
Syracuse takes on Delaware State on Saturday at 1 p.m. inside the Dome.
