Syracuse Basketball: Sloppy Orange effort not enough vs VA Tech Hokies

The Syracuse basketball squad ran into a buzz saw in Blacksburg vs the Virginia Tech Hokies. Here’s how it all went down on Saturday night.

There’s a reason this game was placed in primetime between the Syracuse basketball squad and the Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Orange entered this game 5-1 in conference and winners of seven of their last eight games. But perhaps the most impressive statistic was their undefeated true road record (3-0: at Ohio State, at Notre Dame, and at Duke), well that streak came to a crashing halt vs the Virginia Tech Hokies.

VA Tech entered this game with an impressive streak of their own: no blemishes at home this season. Syracuse didn’t change that.

In the first half, Syracuse actually shot decent from beyond the arc finishing 6-of-16. Frank Howard led the way with eight points, but it was more so what Syracuse didn’t do.

Elijah Hughes who had a career day vs the Miami Hurricanes on Thursday, must’ve left his shooting ability in Syracuse because he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. Elijah was 1-of-8 from the field and an atrocious 1-of-6 from three.

Consider this, Hughes was 6-of-9 from three just 72 hours before Saturday night’s game vs VA Tech.

The Hokies entered this game averaging just under 80 points per contest as the 10th best team in the country and you could see why. The Hokies were making every other basket (53.8 percent from the field). 10 three pointers also helped their efforts.

At the half the damage was done: VA Tech 43, Syracuse 24, here are some other tidbits from the first half:

• No free throws attempted for the Orange, ZERO in the first half. We’ve seen games like this from the Orange earlier in the season, this is what happens when Syracuse isn’t making those amazing three pointers. The Orange have to get into the lane.
• SU lost the battle of the boards 19 to 12.
• Only three assists on their 24 points, a complete opposite of the performance they had vs Miami where they ended up with 22 assists as a team.
• Finally Syracuse ended the first half with nine turnovers.

Second half

After a frustrating first half the Orange kicked things off with a brilliant eight to nothing run for the Orange. Who was the early hero for Syracuse? Oshae Brissett.

Brissett entered the 2018-19 season with massive expectations with many pundits and analysts projecting Oshae as a potential lottery pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. But with added pressure, Brissett seriously struggled with finishing at the cup.

Oshae though brushed that aside to help get Syracuse back into this game and also jumping into double figures early in the second half. Syracuse cut the deficit to 11: 43-32 with under 16 minutes remaining.

After getting no love from the referees in the first stanza, the zebras started whistling a tad more frequently in respect to the men in orange. Oshae converted a flagrant foul into a single point (making it a 10 point game: 43 to 33, with 15:44 remaining in the half). Tyus Battle added to that with two made free throws himself which made it an 11-0 run to start the half.

VA Tech was too talented to not score eventually and they did, but the crazy part of this game is how many shot clock violations the Orange suffered. Give credit to that Hokies defense, but Syracuse was just befuddled.

On top of that Paschal Chukwu got back into the foul trouble that plagued him earlier in the season, he got his fourth relatively early in the second half and forced the Orange to go to that depth.

Then the Hokies started turning it on with a Ty Outlaw deep three increased the lead to 15 and earlier in the game led by as many as 22 points (51-36, around 12 minutes remaining in the half) and the rest was a mere formality with VA Tech winning this one: 78-56.

A few takeaways from this one overall: 

• Syracuse struggled offensively (finishing with 56 points) but for whatever reason didn’t go with one of their hottest shooters in Buddy Boeheim when the game was within reach? Odd.
• The referees were god awful. I hate making that statement after a game as if I’m making excuses for the Orange, because I’m not, but there were so many no calls that were called that put Syracuse in a real pickle. Including when Chukwu fouled out.
• Virginia Tech were phenomenal with their ball movement finishing with 23  assists. While on the other side, Syracuse had a paltry seven assists. You aren’t going to win many games when you finish with that low of a number.

The Orange just didn’t play with the same reckless abandon they had in the Miami game and really during this winning streak overall. Fortunately according to the committee’s eyes this loss is capped at 10 points according to the new NET Rankings System and this was against a top-10 team on their own floor. So in other words, at least this won’t be a black mark on the resume, but it was an awesome opportunity for Syracuse to continue their road winning streak and get a big skin on the wall, but it just wasn’t in the cards.

Syracuse will try to bounce back after a sloppy effort vs the Virginia Tech Hokies. Up next the Orange continue their road trip at Boston College next Wednesday also in primetime at 8:00 p.m.