Syracuse Basketball: Orange squander chance at upset in vs Florida State

Syracuse basketball had a chance to upset Florida State on the road, but couldn’t get the job done. Here’s how it all played out in the Tucker Center.

Syracuse basketball was this close to securing its biggest win of the season, but came up just short. This drops the Orange to 14-11 on the season and they now sit at .500 in the ACC (7-7). The Orange have now lost four out of its last five games.

When Syracuse basketball visited the Florida State Seminoles many of the experts expected the team to be without its’ star Elijah Hughes who suffered a groin strain earlier in the week.

Much to the surprise of Orange fans, Hughes not only suited up but had plenty of energy. About eight minutes into the game, Elijah slipped on the court and fell into a split that took him to the floor.

It was a scary moment and Hughes was able to walk off the hardwood gingerly under his own power. He then started to head to the locker room but stopped for a moment to stretch then he returned to the floor.

Outside of that, Elijah showed a lot of heart throughout the game. Heck just being on the court provided a legitimate decoy that FSU was forced to respect. Although Hughes was much more than a decoy in this one, helping Syracuse in several pivotal moments during the game.

Although the Orange continued to struggle in some of the same areas they’ve been struggling. three-point shooting, foul trouble, and on the glass.

Each of these deficiencies stymied Syracuse’s ability to make things happen on a consistent basis.

Buddy Boeheim was the root of SU’s issues offensively. Quite frankly he just didn’t have it. Orange fans were holding out hope that maybe the start of this game could be eerily similar to the Virginia road trip when Buddy struggled, but got hot late to save the team.

For everything Boeheim was doing wrong, Joe Girard III was more than making it up on his end. After going a woeful 1-of-10 from deep vs NC State, JG3 was cash money vs the Seminoles.

Ultimately though despite stellar performances from JG3 (22 points) and Hughes (25 points), Syracuse fell to FSU in the waning moments 80-77.

Final nuggets:

• Buddy Boeheim went scoreless on the day shooting 0-for-7 from the field and was 0-for-5 from downtown.
• Syracuse continued to struggle from long-range (7-for-25 from deep).
• Also, the Orange were dominated on the glass: 47-29.

Up next the Syracuse basketball team will continue their road trip this time to Louisville to play the top-ranked Cardinals on Wednesday night February 19 at 7:00 p.m.