SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team smothered the Delaware State Hornets, winning 83-43 inside the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday afternoon in the first ever meeting between the two
programs. Donnie Freeman led the way with 20 points for the second straight game to go with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Kiyan Anthony scored 19 points in his first start with the program.
JJ Starling was unavailable for Syracuse, missing the contest with an injury to his right leg. Anthony started in his place along with Naithan George, Nate Kingz, Donnie Freeman and William Kyle.
Freeman opened up the scoring with a three on the opening possession and Adrian Autry had his team pick up in full-court man-to-man. Delaware State came out as sluggish as the dome WiFi as a pair of Orange steals and a block helped Syracuse transition game, opening up a 10-2 at the first timeout. Delaware State coach Stan Waterman called for time, unwilling to wait for the first stop in play. Sadiq White and Tyler Betsey checked in first off the bench, replacing Kyle and Kingz.
Syracuse stayed with the full-court defense while Delaware State put on a soft 1-2-2 full court press, broken easily and Anthony scored in the half-court. On his first shot, Betsey bailed out a bad halfcourt set with three at the end of the shotclock and buried it. Luke Fennell and Ibrahim Souare checked in thereafter. Bryce Zephir rounded out the rotation, replacing Anthony at the 12:51 mark. Fennell handled point guard duties while he was in the game.
George, Kingz and Freeman checked back in at the second media timeout. White would exit the game and limp back into the Syracuse locker room with the help of team personnel. He would return to bench just minutes later, however and check back into the game.
Freeman asserted himself midway through the first half, breaking into double-figures with a transition dunk. He found Zephir for a corner three and then followed that up with an and-one dunk in transition to put Syracuse up 26-9 at he under eight-minute media timeout.
Anthony had a nice stretch where he buried a three on a handoff and was fouled. He’d miss the free throw but scored in traffic on his next possession on a euro-step, pump-faked with his right and finished with his off-hand. He found Betsey for a corner three after that as Syracuse went into the half with 40-17 lead.
Syracuse shot 16-30 from the floor (53.3%) and 5-13 from three (38.5%). Delaware State was 5-33 from the floor (15.2%) and 0-9 from outside. Freeman led all scorers with 13 at the break while Anthony had a dozen. Kyle had 7 rebounds while Kingz had five.
Out of the break, Kyle got off to a strong start with two blocks as well as an offensive rebound and putback and a dunk of a feed from Freeman. The Orange stayed in full-court man-to-man and flustered the Hornets.
Syracuse isolated Freeman in the half-court for an easy floater but the Orange offensive attack was more balanced in the second half. Zephir scored on a transition lay-up, George connected on a corner three and Kyle got involved in the offense after working so hard on the glass. White got in on the action with a couple dunks.
Kyle continued his play throughout the second half. He converted an and-one with 7:49left to make it 68-31. Kingz would score off an offensive rebound from Kyle and pushed the Orange lead 70-33. He’d then hit a three on his next play. Anthony connected on a three down the stretch. Up by 40 with under two minutes to go Autry motioned to Tiefing “Cheffy” Diawara, Syracuse’s 7-foot freshman center. It was the first time Diawara had seen the court this season, including the exhibition contests.
Ultimately the Hornets, stymied by the Orange defense, couldn’t get much going on offense to make this a competitive game as the Orange was intent to defend for the second straight game.
Next up
Syracuse heads to Philadelphia to take on Drexel on Saturday, Nov. 15. The Orange play in the Autumn Invitational at Xfinity Mobile Arena. The Orange and Dragons tip at 3:30 pm with NBC/Peacock picking up streaming.
