Syracuse Basketball: Elijah Hughes carries SU to dominant win over Miami

The Syracuse basketball team got a huge lift from Elijah Hughes and the Orange walked away with a dominant win over the Miami Hurricanes.

The big issue that has been plaguing the Orange is second chance points. In the first five minutes of the game, that was a huge factor. Miami continued to get additional opportunities that eventually they converted on.

Hand-in-hand with that Syracuse lost the battle of the boards vs Pitt, if Paschal Chukwu didn’t reel in 11, imagine how much worse it would’ve been?

The Hurricanes may only have seven healthy dudes to choose from, but as Syracuse witnessed last season, occasionally that can be more then enough. The Hurricanes entered this game as the third best three point shooting team in the ACC and they showed that shooting prowess in the first half.

Speaking of deep shooting I think Frank Howard is back. 3-of-4 from a different area code to start the game with 7:19 remaining in the first half. Over the last handful of games, his shooting has been inconsistent, but you could see that he was making strides.

Strides is something Buddy Boeheim has continued to do over the last handful of games. Early in the season in his limited minutes he was forcing it so hard, now he has just let the game come to him. If he can continue to be at the very least a threat from beyond the arc, it’ll keep defenses honest and open up lanes for other Orange. In the last two games, Buddy has been shooting 6-of-9, talk about RED HOT!

FIRST HALF: Syracuse 32 Miami 29

Some other interesting tidbits from the first half: 

• Syracuse continues to live and die by the three ball (8-of-16 from beyond the arc)
• Tyus Battle had a team high six assists (good) and a team low ZERO POINTS (not good)
• Miami dominated the boards: 24-12 edge in rebounding

Second half

Battle didn’t score his first points of the game until the 16 minute mark of the second half, a bit unusual for Syracuse’s leading scorer, but Miami couldn’t hold him down forever.

Someone who has been an absolute difference maker this season for the Orange is Elijah Hughes. The efficiency is off the charts, Hughes cashed in four treys in only six attempts. Giving the Orange the 45-39 edge with 13:54 remaining in the second half.

An interesting momentum shift in the game came in a loose ball situation: with the holy roller happening, Paschal Chukwu showed Syracuse head coach Dino Babers what he could provide on the gridiron with a textbook form tackle of Chris Lykes (that coulda shoulda woulda been a foul), but instead results in a beautiful AND-1 from Tyus Battle who had that second half takeover look in his eyes. 50-41 lead for Syracuse with 12:20 remaining in the second half.

Some laughed at the notion of Tyus Battle ever playing the point for Syracuse, well the ultimate contrarian Jim Boeheim will have some explaining to do after this one because Tyus has excelled in spot duty. In this game with over 10 minutes remaining in the second half has already achieved a career-high in assists with eight.

This is probably the best Tyus has looked without necessarily having to score the basketball. It certainly shows the development he has made as a basketball player.

But it was Hughes who delivered for Syracuse on a strong 16-3 run to finish this one. Syracuse ends up winning this one 73-53 behind some red hot shooting.

Some final nuggets from this one:

• Syracuse improves to 5-1 in conference play
• Elijah Hughes ends up with a career-high seven three pointers
• Syracuse attendance in the Carrier Dome: 21,058

Up next the Syracuse Orange have to quickly turn it around as they face an unusual three game road trip in the ACC. It starts in Cassell Coliseum vs one of the best teams in the country in the Virginia Tech Hokies. That’ll be a Saturday night affair with tipoff set for 8:00 p.m. on January 26th.