Syracuse Basketball: Double overtime juices the Orange dry in loss

Syracuse basketball star Tyus Battle did everything he could to lead the Orange to their first top-25 win of the season, but it wasn’t enough.

A pivotal matchup for the Syracuse basketball squad as they faced their second top-25 team in a row this week. Although they got a blessing from the good lord above before tip-off.

A late scratch was FSU’s leading scorer Terance Mann who was averaging over 15 points per contest. But perhaps more importantly Mann was also the Seminole’s leading rebounder. Could the Orange take advantage of an opponents issues this time around?

Well it didn’t start that way. Sloppy seconds much? That’s how this game opened up for both the Syracuse basketball squad and the Florida State Seminoles.

First half:

The positives:

• Howard Washington was a factor and this time it wasn’t a bad thing. Washington did a good job of canning an open three. While he even showed his passing moxie finding a wide open Oshae Brissett at the top of the key. On a quick steal from the Cuse he calmly took a nice mid-range jumper and canned it as well. Washington finished with five points in the first half.
• Oshae Brissett getting a nice open three, collecting boards (4), and just being a factor for this team.

There were also some cons:

• SU just didn’t attack the boards. Too many second chance opportunities for the Seminoles. Which is something that really spoils how good SU was playing on defense. After the first stanza, SU were outrebounded 25-17.
• Turnovers continue to derail this team. They had nine in the first half. While a major contributor was Paschal Chukwu who just doesn’t know how to use his big mitts. Although every member of the starting five had at least one turnover and several had two.
• Sloppy offense: 9-of-28 from the field. While the Seminoles weren’t much better: 12-of-35. The true difference was the second chance baskets, FSU had 11 offensive boards to SU’s 6.

In the last five minutes of the half, the Orange finally started to get some great ball movement going. That started to open things up offensively for the Cuse. But then the Seminoles starting clasping the hands around the throat after some silly turnovers and poor shot selection. FSU led 31-21 after the half.

Second half:

SU got off to a quick start thanks to some shake and bake from Frank Howard who got a nice long two. Then a quick forced turnover by the Orange defense and it looked like we could get a SportsCenter highlight in the making, I saw what Howard did a streaking Matthew Moyer to the basket and a 6’1 CJ Walker unknowingly sitting in the paint.

Just when we thought we’d get a sick alley-oop, poor execution resulted in a quick transition basket for the Seminoles.

But suddenly the Orange started to get things rolling thanks to Tyus Battle from beyond the arc. A 8-0 run to start the second half cut the deficit to one (35-34, with just under 16 minutes to go). Also something we talked in pregame was pushing the tempo and creating opportunities in the fast break for some easy offense.

That’s key for a team that struggles to create points on a nightly basis.

Finally SU took their first lead since the 12:50 mark in the first half when they led 5-4, thanks to a pair of Brissett free throws.

That didn’t last long as FSU started to throw three from over the 2-3 zone and they finally found pay dirt.

Which led to another big run for the Orange.

But fast forward towards the final few minutes in the game and SU started to get into some serious foul trouble. That included a quick turnaround where we got a huge Howard basket and on the other end he was disqualified from the game.

But after some finagling back and forth, SU was down three with 15 seconds to go and no timeouts. That’s when the straw that stirs the drink for the Orange sliced and diced down the court before hitting a pull-up three pointer to knot up the game and send it to overtime.

It was a back and forth overtime, a lot of clutch play from Tyus battle, but it was the Canadian Sensation who had the chance to finish it off in overtime. He clanked it and this thing went to double overtime. The foul trouble continued with Matthew Moyer and Paschal Chukwu fouling out and really testing the depth of the Orange.

But double overtime was too much for the Cuse. They had their chances but limited depth, silly turnovers, and just overall exhaustion juiced the Orange dry.

Tyus Battle gave it everything he had with a career-high 37 points, 10-of-13 from the charity stripe, and drilled five three pointers. SU ended up losing 101-90.

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This could’ve been the first skin on the wall for the Cuse and easily would’ve been their biggest win of the season. Hopefully despite not getting the win, this can lead to a morale boost for this basketball team and can get the good times rolling. Up next for the Orange is a pair of home games against Pitt and Boston College. Although there’s an eight day gap between those games. Pittsburgh is first up, tip-off set for 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday.