Syracuse Basketball: Jordan Crawford carries Boeheim’s Army to victory

Boeheim’s Army needed the lone non-Syracuse basketball alum Jordan Crawford to move on in TBT. Here are all the details on a crazy opening-round victory.

Survive and advance is the name of the game and that’s exactly what Boeheim’s Army did in the opening round of the Syracuse regional vs We Are D3.

An unlikely hero stepped up to the plate in former NBA star Jordan Crawford.

He’s the lone non-Syracuse alum on a squad filled with former Orange legends across many different eras.

Many people questioned why he was on this team and he proved his worth on Friday night. Jordan led Boeheim’s Army in points with 17 and ended up hitting the game-clinching free throw to escape with the narrow 68-65 victory to advance.

Overall Crawford just hit so many difficult shots and showed his NBA experience throughout the contest.

This was a game that the Orange were heavily favored in, but came out lackadaisical defensively and were down as many as 14 points in the opening half.

After a furious rally, Boeheim’s Army closed the gap late in the first half. Despite some momentum in the second half, the squad couldn’t finish off We Are D3 and walk away with the victory.

Free throws were a bittersweet part of this contest. On one hand, Boeheim’s Army hit 19-of-22 makes from the charity stripe. Although the misses were at critical times: Hakim had a chance to close it and missed the free throw. While Crawford toyed with all of our emotions by missing the first of two free throws, before ending the game officially at 68-65 thanks to the Elam Ending.

In this tournament, you have to hit your three-pointers and Boeheim’s Army is fortunate to move on after struggling from beyond the arc (5-of-17).

The other two double-digit scorers for Boeheim’s Army were their most veteran players in Hakim Warrick (13 points) and Eric Devendorf (11 points).

Boeheim’s Army has 11 players on the roster, although two were unavailable:

• Brandon Triche is battling an injury and expects to return to the team if they advance to Chicago.
• While Chris McCullough is playing overseas and also is hoping to return if the squad moves on to Chicago for the final leg of The Basketball Tournament.

Which means head coach Ryan Blackwell had nine players to work with Friday night and he used all of them. The only player on the squad who didn’t get double-digit minutes is Darryl Watkins and that’s because he got in early foul trouble.

Here are all the other top performers:

• Jordan Crawford
  • 6-of-15 (17 points), three rebounds, one steal, and shot 40 percent from the field.
• Hakim Warrick
  • 4-of-6 (13 points), eight boards, one assist, over 24 minutes played.
• Eric Devendorf
  • 3-of-7 (11 points), five rebounds, three assists, one steal, over 20 minutes played.
• Arinze Onuaku
  • 4-of-6 (eight points), five boards, one assist, two steals, one block, and over 25 minutes played.
• John Gillon
  • 1-of-5 (six points), two assists, five turnovers, two rebounds, and over 18 minutes played.
• BJ Johnson
  • 1-of-5 (five points), one assist, one steal, one block, and a huge three-pointer late in the third period.
• Andrew White III
  • 1-of-5 (four points), two rebounds, one assist, over 22 minutes played.
• Michael Gbinije
  • 1-of-2 (two points), one steal, over 16 minutes played.
• Darryl Watkins
  • 1-of-1 (two points), two rebounds, two assists, three fouls, and played eight minutes.

With such a short turnaround to their next game in the Syracuse regional, that depth will be very important throughout the early rounds of this tournament.

Up next for Boeheim’s Army is a second-round matchup with Gael Nation Saturday at noon in the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College.