Syracuse Basketball Loses in OT to Clemson

After squandering a 4 point lead with 50 seconds left on awful defense and a missed free throw, Syracuse basketball lost to Clemson in overtime, 74-73.

Another ACC conference game, another loss for Syracuse basketball. This one stings just a little bit more.

With just over a minute to go in regulation, Syracuse called a timeout up by a point. It was the perfect opportunity for Coach Mike Hopkins to draw up a winning play and have the team execute.

Instead, they dribbled around with the ball for 25 seconds doing nothing, then got bailed out by one of the most miraculous 3-pointers I’ve ever seen by Malachi Richardson. With two men draped all over him, he elevated and drained an off balance three with the shot clock about to expire. It looked like the dagger that would finally seal the game.

Instead, Syracuse gave up an uncontested layup on the next possession, then Malachi Richardson only went 1 of 2 from the line to give SU a 3-point lead with 18 seconds to go. Once again, Hopkins could have made a coaching impact and told his guys to foul before Clemson could get off a 3. Once again, he failed to do that and Clemson inevitably forced overtime. They didn’t even attempt to foul, and instead gave up a wide open look.

The overtime was back and forth, with Syracuse giving up easy inside bucket after inside bucket, and only remaining close thanks to 3’s by Tyler Lydon and Trevor Cooney. In the end it didn’t matter, as Cooney’s wide open 3 to win the game with a second left clanged off front iron, a sight we’ve seen all too often in his four years of playing time.

Syracuse had lost. Again.

There were several factors that contributed to this loss. Terrible interior presence on defense was by far the biggest. I hate to be the one to have to tell Boeheim and Hopkins this, but Lydon can’t play the center. He’s not big enough, he can’t guard the post, and when he tries to, he leaves the baseline wide open for easy dump downs and lobs.

Jaron Blossomgame, the one guy I said SU had to contain, had an absolute field day on the baseline, converting lobs and layups with ease.

Another major factor, once again, was free throw shooting. As solid as Michael Gbinije played (22 points, 4 assists, 0 turnovers), he went just 4-7 from the free throw line. Just one of those makes and SU wins the game. As a team, Syracuse shot just 63.2% and missed a number of key free throws. I mentioned Richardson’s above, but Gbinije, Cooney, and Lydon all had big missed free throws as well.

The last major factor, in my opinion, was the officiating. There were a myriad of questionable calls in the game. At least four times I watched a ball go out of bounds off Clemson only to be awarded to them. There were several calls against SU that were absolutely ridiculous, including two huge blocks on the defensive end that turned into easy points at the line for Clemson.

But as much as I thought the game was not well officiated, those other reasons mentioned above were the true culprits as to why SU lost this game.

Syracuse now falls to 0-3 in conference play and 10-6 on the year, and have pretty much sealed their fate in not making the NCAA tournament this year. It would take an incredible run down the stretch or an ACC tourney championship for them to get an invite now.

I’ve got a lot more to say, but just don’t have the energy right now. This team has slowly sucked the life out of me, and now I need to rest and recover. Check back tomorrow for a bigger breakdown of what went wrong for Syracuse and where they go from here.