The Syracuse basketball team showed tremendous heart in another home win this time over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Here’s the notes and quotes.
More than anything else, I believe that the primary culprit of the Syracuse basketball squad’s disappointing season to date has amounted to a lack of chemistry, fight and grit.
However, the Orange exhibited all those attributes on Tuesday night.
Save for a second-half collapse to Connecticut at Madison Square Garden last December, resulting in a tough-to-swallow 52-50 defeat, the 2016-17 campaign for Syracuse has, for the most part, gone one of two ways.
Either the ‘Cuse crushes its opponent, or the flip side occurs, and the Orange gets demolished.
Yet in its battle with Wake Forest at the Carrier Dome, neither of these trends materialized. Rather, a seesaw match-up resulted in a tight 81-76 triumph for SU (12-9, 4-4 in the ACC) over the Demon Deacons (12-8, 3-5).
WF led for more than half of the game’s 40 minutes, including by eight points after intermission.
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But Syracuse hung around, and eventually went on a 20-6 run of its own to generate a six-point advantage.
That put the Central New York crowd of more than 22,000 into a frenzy.
Here’s where the gut-check came into play: with the Orange up 67-61, Wake Forest answered with seven straight points to reclaim the edge, 68-67. Two-and-a-half minutes remained.
Honestly, at this juncture, I figured SU would cave. It’s not pessimism. It’s simply how this year’s roster, unfortunately, has panned out.
Perhaps it’s time to have a little more confidence in our current group of guys.
In the final 120 seconds, which seemingly took forever to transpire, graduate transfer Andrew White III and sophomore Tyler Lydon each hit a clutch 3-pointer, and – get this! – Syracuse closed out the contest by connecting on 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.
Even better, four different ‘Cuse teammates made free throws to seal the deal, which is encouraging given the Orange’s historical struggles at the line.
"“The end-game situations, we just haven’t been in any of those,” head coach Jim Boeheim told Syracuse.com. “Not being in those situations, it’s easy to not make good plays. You’ve got to be in them to get used to them. I thought that we made some really good plays at both ends of the court.”"
White produced a terrific 27 points on 5-of-11 shooting from downtown, eclipsing 1,000 points for his career, including stints at Kansas and then Nebraska. “A win in the ACC is precious,” he said, via Syracuse.com. “For us to be able to convert in those defining moments down the stretch was very good to see.”
"Added fellow grad transfer John Gillon, who contributed six points, six assists (against three turnovers), and three steals: “I actually noticed that we haven’t been in any close games. We’ve either been winning by a lot or losing by a good amount. Just to suck it up and see what we’re made of down the stretch, I think that gives us good experience in situations like that. It also gives us confidence that we can win those close games.”"
Lydon continued in his groove, collecting 15 points, nine boards, five dimes and two blocks. And freshman Taurean Thompson sported 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in only 21 minutes of action.
One aspect of the overall outcome worth noting is that the ‘Cuse got smoked on the glass in the opening half but righted the rebounding department in the second stanza. This proved critical. Kudos to Syracuse.
In the SU squad’s first nail-biting conference clash, the Orange kept its composure and pulled out a victory versus a Demon Deacons outfit that has a top-25 RPI and surprised N.C. State on the road this past weekend.
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Maybe this is a performance for which the Orange can build upon, heading into a monster showdown on Saturday, Jan 28, when the ‘Cuse hosts No 6 Florida State. All-aboard the momentum express!