Syracuse Basketball: Clemson’s 2nd half comeback dooms Orange

The Clemson Tigers used a strong second half to put away the Syracuse basketball squad. Here’s what went wrong and what’s next for SU.

The ball simply didn’t bounce the way of the Syracuse basketball squad in the second half vs Clemson. Here’s how it all played out.

As expected the first basket wasn’t scored until two-plus minutes into the game on a nifty move from Oshae Brissett getting to the rack.

In the first five and a half minutes of the game, Brissett started out 2-for-2, while Clemson was 0-for-13 as a team from the field. The first matchup between these two teams was an offensive slop fest, this rematch continued that same narrative.

Although Buddy Boeheim made his presence known with a big three with just around 10 minutes remaining that was so pure. In the first matchup between Syracuse and Clemson, Buddy was a non-factor.

Interestingly enough Bourama Sidibe has been a non-factor for much of this season for the Orange which has been uber disappointing, but Jim Boeheim must’ve deemed him healthy enough because he got a ton of minutes in the first half vs Clemson on Saturday.

He brought a scrappiness to the game that was infectious to the rest of his teammates. Brissett was aggressively chasing loose balls and rebounds. Frank Howard was driving and making intelligent passes. *Wipes the tear from eye* it was beautiful. After a beautiful pump fake by Oshae Brissett at the three-point arc and his ice cold conversion going 3-for-3, that made it a 10-point advantage for Syracuse 23-13 with under seven minutes remaining.

Which felt like a 100-point lead with how this game was being played. But Syracuse had chances in that first half to really let the Tigers have it. For instance, Marek Dolezaj got a great feed had the ball at the top of the key to take a three and bring the SU lead back to double digits, but he hesitated and traveled with only a few minutes remaining in the first half.

Wrapping up the first half in a couple of nuggets: Clemson played poorly, the Syracuse defense played very well, yet the Orange only led by seven points at the half. Syracuse should’ve been leading by a lot more.

First-half takeaways:

• Marcquise Reed averages 19 points per game, yet only had four points in the first half.
• Clemson converted seven baskets in the first half, they committed 10 turnovers. So, in other words, they had more turnovers than field goals made.
• Speaking of turnovers, Syracuse is one of the best teams in the ACC in turnover margin. Yet in this first half, they were incredibly sloppy surrendering nine turnovers.
• 17 of SU’s first-half 31 points came from the bench.
  • No field goal made by senior guard Frank Howard which is no bueno.

Second half

After unseen levels of offensive ineptitude, the half kicked off with both teams trading three-point baskets, go figure.

That was Frank Howard’s first field goal converted. He’s struggled with turnovers and just lackadaisical play, but he balances that with great passes. Super inconsistent and the roller coaster continues for the senior guard.

After a lot of wrestling back and forth over the first five-plus minutes of the second half, Clemson finally tied the game at 38 all. Which inevitably led to Clemson getting their first lead of the game 40-38 just a few moments later.

Throughout this game, Clemson has just so happened to be in the right place at the right time. Frank Howard coughs up ball right to Clemson for an easy slam. SU has the rebound and just loses it conveniently to a Clemson player waiting to grab the board and get fouled.

With that, another Syracuse offensive lull (four-plus minutes without scoring a basket) and Clemson took advantage with opportunistic scoring from their best players. 47-38 with under 12 minutes remaining was the largest lead of the game for the Tigers.

The lull finally ended for the Orange with a huge three-point basket from Brissett. Then a slam dunk from Chukwu and this was a four-point game with under 10 to go.

Although an underlying tone in the game was the foul trouble for the Orange. The first man out of the game was Frank Howard committing his fifth foul. Then to make matters worse, Paschal Chukwu got hobbled by a leg injury taking him out of the game.

With those things being considered and the fact that Syracuse has gone over 10 minutes without scoring a basket, it just goes to show what kind of lulls Syracuse can fall into when they get complacent. The long drought ended with another Brissett shot from deep, keeping SU’s slim chances alive in this one late.

But the slim hopes expired quickly with SU suffering too many turnovers, an offensive lull, and Clemson was often in the right place at the right time. Clemson won this one 67-55.

Final takeaways:

• Syracuse just coughed up way too many turnovers (18)
• Too many of SU’s players didn’t show up:
  • Elijah Hughes scored zero points.
  • Frank Howard scored three points (1-of-6 from the field).
• Recently Syracuse has just been outplayed in second halves over the last batch of games and that happened again in this one. Clemson outscored SU: 43-24 in the second stanza.
• Clemson finished with 24-of-30 free throws converted.

Now officially the regular season is in the books for the Orange. The next step is the ACC tournament next week where Syracuse can pad the resume ahead of the NCAA tournament.