Well it’s not the game you want to see before the Syracuse Orange head to Vegas to face #1 Houston next week, but the Orange hold on for a 78-73 win and we’ve got some takeaways.
Broke the Count
On two occasions
the Orange appeared poised to pull away from Monmouth and get to a comfortable win. Both times, Syracuse let them off the ropes and into a counter=punch. In the first half, the Orange had a 34-26 lead and a chance to grab a defensive rebound, but a loose ball foul on Sadiq White and a technical on Adrian Autry let Justin Ray cut that lead in half from the foul line. What could have been a double-digit advantage at the break was just three.
In the second half, the Orange opened up a 61-47 lead when Autry went to his bench alongside Naithan George. This time it was a series of mistakes by Syracuse that let Monmouth go on a 13-6 run to make it close down the stretch. It was disappointing see the reserves let the Hawks back in the game, so Autry’s going to have to think about how he deploys his rotation moving forward.
During the previous three games, Syracuse locked in and put teams away and last night they got too cute and didn’t deliver the knockout.
Free Throws
It’s the same issues we’ve seen from Syracuse basketball over the years- rebounding and free throw shooting. The Orange were just 19-33 last night and it almost cost them the win. Take away Donnie Freeman’s 12-14 performance and the rest of the team was an abysmal 7-19. Nate Kingz shot 81.8% last year and didn’t touch the ball when Monmouth was looking to foul.
With JJ Starling having the yips and William Kyle’s track record from the line, the Syracuse coaches need to get creative with late-game substitutions and in-bounds plays or else it’s going to be a lot teeth-gnashing down the stretch.
Ref show
Look, this game shouldn’t have been this close, but the flow was completely ruined by the officiating. It was inconsistent, which is the worst outcome you can have. The refs called some weak fouls on both teams and then let other more obvious fouls go- Monmouth was able to score twice on plays where the ball-handler hooked their defender, Saadiq White had at least two phantom fouls called, and I’m not sure how Bryce Zephir got called for a foul when he had the ball on his stomach, but he did.
Syracuse needs to remain poised in these spots. Young players can certainly be excused for emotions, but the starting group is experienced and should settle things down with safe, smart plays. Houston is going to try and bully the Orange from the opening tip and Syracuse can’t let the officials dictate how they respond.
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What were your takeaways?
