The Syracuse basketball team had a chance to solidify their position in the NCAA tournament, but were unable too. Now they must shift their focus.
The Syracuse basketball team got off to a slow start to the game. The result of a reliance on shots from beyond the arc and poor execution.
Although just like last week SU had to rely upon their 19-year old freshman for a spark. Battle had 12 of SU’s first 17 points and sparked the Orange to a 14-2 run.
Unfortunately no one else stepped up in the fist half, Battle was doing it all by himself. Which speaks to the stagnation on offense in the last 10 minutes of the half SU only scored three times. Outside of Battle it was an atrocious first half for the Orange.
The big takeaways from that first half were turnovers (SU had 10 of them) plus the team shot
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under 30%. The lone bright spot at least going into the half was that they had the same amount of points they had against Duke going into half.
But sadly this time, the cardiac Cuse simply dug a hole too deep. The team looked like they were running on fumes and Andrew White couldn’t score till deep into the second half. This was a player that had a consecutive 20 point scoring streak during the meat of the season to pace this squad.
SU drops to 9-8 in the ACC and 17-13 overall. While the Louisville Cardinals increase their domination at home to 15-1. 23-6 overall, 11-5 in the ACC. Clearly it’s not a matter of if the Cardinals are getting in, but how high of a seed can they acquire.
If we’re being honest most realist Orange fans knew that this would be a tough one to get. While they did force this same team to overtime just two weeks ago, that was in Syracuse. Louisville is a possible final-four team and they dominated throughout the contest.
Here are the final takeaways. The positives: SU continues to shoot well from charity stripe (90%). And Battle looked pretty solid finishing up with 20 points.
The negatives would be too long to list but to start: SU got dominated on the boards (-11 differential). They turned the ball over at a high clip and shot poorly from both beyond the arc and from the field. SU loses this one 88-68 and they could’ve lost by even more.
After the game head coach Jim Boeheim confirmed our earlier inclinations through a tweet by the voice of the Orange, Matt Park.
"JB: “They’re just too much for us today. We’ve worn down a little bit. We had some shots that we didn’t make… We need this week of rest.”"
Speaking of rest, SU now has to shift their focus to their regular season finale back at the Carrier Dome against Georgia Tech. We can argue whether SU has the prerequisite credentials to enter the tournament right now, but it would be a bad optic if SU “lost-out” heading into the tourney.
Next: Syracuse Basketball: John Gillon Is Hitting 3’s On And Off The Court
This next game against the Yellow Jackets is must win.