Syracuse Basketball: SU bench leads team to much needed win vs Boston College

Syracuse Basketball got a win when they needed it most vs the Boston College Eagles thanks to great bench play.

After dropping 31 points in the first meeting between these two teams,   The Boston College Eagles weren’t going to let Tyus Battle run around freely. On their very first possession for the Orange, BC was utilizing double teams to try and force the ball out of Battle’s hands.

The Orange got an early break with Ky Bowman committing a minor team violation which saw him on the bench for the first five minutes of the game. Sadly Syracuse wasn’t able to take advantage with a big start to the game. Speaking of starts to games Syracuse has struggled in that department all season. In this game, they didn’t light it up by any means,  but they were able to control the Eagles. Oshae Brissett  got a nice and one finish, Tyus Battle  did some nice driving to the hoop, but there were a few concerns.

Frank Howard struggled  offensively throughout the first 10 minutes of the game and Paschal Chukwu  continues to struggle maintaining rebounds and passing the basketball. In the first half that amounted to a defense of slugfest Buddy Boeheim drilled a three to take the lead for the Orange with under seven minutes remaining in the game to inject some life into this Syracuse and it worked perfectly.

A second straight three was drilled by Marek Dolezaj, now Syracuse was really moving and grooving. For anyone who said Buddy Boeheim wasn’t going to contribute to this year’s SU squad was dead wrong. Boeheim has been cooking  from downtown and that was very much the case throughout this first half making three of three from beyond the arc.

At the end of the first half it was Syracuse, 31- BC 24.

First half takeaways:

• SU had 10 points  off of turnovers while the Eagles had a fat zero.
• It was a pretty ugly first half overall with BC shooting under 30.8% while Syracuse was shooting 37.9%. The real difference in this game was the shooting from beyond the arc with the orange making five threes out of 12 shots wit his BC making 1-of-9.
• To be honest the orange bench play hasn’t been consistent throughout the season but on Saturday it was clicking in the dome with Buddy leading all scorers in Orange with 11 points and really sparked the team through some lackadaisical moments.

Second half

Frank Howard hadn’t scored in over 60 minutes combined over the past game and a half but finally hit a big three to extend the orange lead to 10 , 36-26.

That’s when the injury bug started affecting the Eagles of Boston College: Nik Popovic and Stefan Mitchell  both being knocked out of the game. Mitchell  landed awkwardly on his left leg and Popovic  was unintentionally hit in the face on a rebound.

Syracuse led by as many as 20 points and a 14-0 run by BC made this game closer than it should’ve been but ultimately Syracuse got the dub. Up next SU will go on the road Wednesday to play NC State.