Syracuse Basketball: 3-point barrage by Virginia overpowers Orange

The Virginia Cavaliers were too hot offensively and Syracuse basketball simply couldn’t keep up. Here are the highlights and how it all went down.

Syracuse basketball kept it close for a while, but ultimatley the three-point shooting by Virginia was too much to handle. Here’s how it all unfolded.

Heading into this game there was no expectation of an offensive shootout. Virginia owns the No. 1 defense in terms of points allowed and Syracuse being not far behind this was going to be a grinder. Of course, it was anything but with some offense throughout the first half.

In a bizarre exchange, Oshae Brissett was called for a foul upon further review was increased to a flagrant one. The worst part was the referees reviewed it and upgraded it, not sure what they saw on tape there but didn’t seem like anything more than a normal basketball maneuver.

The strength of the game early on for the Cavaliers was cleary their three-point barrage with Ty Jerome and Kyle Guy both notching two threes a piece early on giving Virginia a nice punch.

Fortunately, Syracuse answered with essentially two threes from Elijah Hughes. One came in the traditional sense, while the other Hughes was fouled beyond the arc and converted all of his attempts to give Syracuse a 17-16 edge with under 11 minutes remaining.

With the pressure on Virginia started to roll with a light full court press. Bad idea as Buddy Boeheim made them pay with a smooth three-point conversion making it a 22-21 game with under seven and a half minutes remaining in the first half.

Ironically enough entering this game the big question was could SU force turnovers? Against Wake Forest, they came early and often with the Orange taking 23. Against Virginia? The Cavaliers cough up the fewest turnovers in the entire conference (less than 10 per game, the only team in the ACC that can say that).

Yet in this first half Syracuse had already forced five with less than seven and a half minutes remaining. Turnovers lead to easy baskets and in a game where the offense is scarce, that’s a massive plus.

Although arguably the mismatch of the night is when Virginia put Kihei Clark (5-foot-9) on Tyus Battle (6-foot-5). Battle didn’t hesitate to use his size to his advantage whether that was posting up, juking, or delivering in the lane.

Some big moments from the seniors in this first half with Frank Howard hitting a huge shot before intermission and Chukwu showing life and energy.

First-half takeaways: 

• Virginia had eight turnovers in the first half, they average 9.2 per game.
• Cavaliers, three-pointers were very lethal: 8-of-12 from deep.
• Balanced scoring from the Orange in the first half:
  • SU didn’t have a single player in double figures, but they did have 4 players with 6 or more points.
• SU won the battle of the boards in the first stanza: 19-14.

Second half

Something magical happened in the second half that we hadn’t seen often enough throughout the season: Oshae Brissett going 2-for-2 from the charity stripe after getting hacked.

After some exchanges back and forth Tyus Battle got the crowd back into it with a BIG three-pointer to make it 43-42, but another three quickly answered from the Cavaliers quieted the crowd once more.

Marek Dolezaj went down awkwardly but Syracuse Athletics told us it was a left ankle and it was being wrapped up, expected to return to the game with under 15 minutes remaining in the second half. He returned to the game officially with 12:07 remaining in the game.

Speaking with Dave Koehn, the Voice of the Cavaliers, prior to the game he revealed that this is the best offensive team Virginia has had in a while. He wasn’t kidding.

Virginia with under 12 minutes remaining had already converted 12 three-pointers on only 17 attempts for a slick 70.6 percent conversion rate. That’s tough to compete no matter what is going on but somehow even with that, it was still only a seven-point game: 50-43.

Make that another three, that’s an 11-0 run for Virginia: 53-43 with 10:19 remaining in the game.

Spoiler alert that wouldn’t be the last three-pointer made in this one and when it rains it pours they say and that was all she wrote. The Orange lost this one 79-53 on a cold night in Syracuse.

Final takeaways:

• Virginia was nuts from beyond the arc finishing 18-of-25 from deep and no that’s not a typo. Or perhaps it’ll be easier to swallow when you read it like this: 72 percent conversion rate.
• Syracuse did not pass the ball very well (eight assists), while Virginia on the other side was exceptional finishing with 21 assists.
• There were several NBA scouts in attendance at the Carrier Dome from the Portland Trailblazers, the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Golden State Warriors to name a few.

Up next is the final game of the regular season for the Syracuse basketball squad. The Orange will take the road to play a rematch against the Clemson Tigers. SU won the first matchup 61-53, tipoff for the rematch on Saturday at Littlejohn Coliseum is set for 12:00 p.m.