Syracuse Basketball: Buddy Boeheim delivers 1st ACC home win of 2020 vs BC

Syracuse basketball finally earned its 1st ACC home win of 2020 thanks to Buddy Boeheim. Here are all the details on how the Orange got it done vs BC.

In a span of a week, Syracuse basketball fans have gone from thinking about the first losing season in Jim Boeheim’s tenure as head coach to a red hot two-game winning streak.

Here’s how the Orange secured their first ACC home win of the season thanks to some contributions from Buddy Boeheim.

First half

There wasn’t much offense to speak of to start this contest with the game sitting at 3-1 through the first five minutes and no that isn’t a typo.

Buddy Boeheim doubled the Syracuse offense to six with a quick trigger from deep, continuing his red hot play from the overtime contest vs Virginia.

In a scary moment with the team still up six-to-one, Elijah Hughes hit the deck pretty hard and it took him a while to get off the floor. When he was sitting on the sideline a medical official was evaluating his ribs.

Back to the game, it took eight minutes for Boston College to score their first field goal of the game. Overall this first half was just littered with poor basketball.

Although the poor play wouldn’t continue for the Orange, Buddy Boeheim would go on to score seven straight to give the team an 18-7 lead.

In addition to Boeheim getting hot, his father Jim started getting a bit loose with his rotation. We saw appearances by Jesse Edwards and Howard Washington (due to injuries and foul issues).

Another note, after getting hurt earlier in the game, Elijah Hughes had a breakaway slam opportunity and finished with authority. A good sign that he’s feeling just dandy after a scary situation earlier in the game.

First-half takeaways:

• Boston College was atrocious in the first half, some of that was the Syracuse defense, but most of it was just the Eagles being terrible, to be honest.
  • BC shot 5-of-27 from the field including a woeful 0-for-14 from long distance.
• Syracuse dominated the boards 21-to-13.
• Overall it was just nice to see Syracuse come out against a team they’re clearly better than and dominate from pillar to post.

Second half

It was prevalent in the first half and it continued in the second half we continued to see the all-around game of Buddy Boeheim offensively. He’s no longer just a spot-up shooter, how he drove to the basket last year to what he’s doing this year is a night and day difference.

On the Boston College side of things, they started the game 0-for-18 from long distance before finally breaking the embarrassing drought late in the second half.

For much of the second half Syracuse simply put the car in cruise control and coasted to a monster victory over Boston College. Not only was this Syracuse’s first ACC home win of the year but it also brought the Orange to .500 in the conference at 3-3 and 10-7 overall on the season.

Final takeaways:

• Despite getting banged up earlier in the game, Elijah Hughes continued his impressive streak of scoring double-digit points in every game this season. He’s the only member of the Orange to accomplish that feat this season.
• Marek Dolezaj earned his second double-double of the year.
• Brycen Goodine made his first appearance in a game since breaking his nose in practice two weeks ago.

Up next for the Orange is a road trip to Cassell Coliseum for a rematch with the Virginia Tech Hokies. That matchup is scheduled for Saturday at noon.