Syracuse basketball caught fire from deep, but free-throw shooting awful

Coming into its non-conference encounter with Ivy League member Brown on Monday night in Central New York, it’s safe to say that Syracuse basketball senior shooting guard Buddy Boeheim and senior forward Cole Swider had been struggling from beyond the arc.

But the two of them, along with junior point guard Joe Girard III and graduate student forward Jimmy Boeheim, proved tremendous from 3-point land in a blow-out triumph over the Bears.

As a team, per ESPN statistics, the Orange connected on 13 shots from deep, and the ‘Cuse made nearly 62 percent of its 3-point attempts.

What’s more, the Orange hit on an impressive 57.4 percent from the field as a whole, as ‘Cuse players, in an encouraging sign, didn’t rely solely on 3-pointers. Rather, Syracuse basketball did a solid job of driving to the hoop and scoring from the mid-range.

Buddy Boeheim was lights-out in the second half, and he finished with a squad-high 28 points. When Boeheim, his brother, Girard and Swider are all clicking from the field, the Orange is going to prove really tough to take down.

Syracuse basketball, though, was abysmal from the charity stripe.

I can’t find too many things to complain about as it pertains to the Orange’s 93-62 conquest of the Bears (8-6), a group that had played multiple tight games against strong competition.

However, the ‘Cuse (6-5, 1-0) did commit 12 turnovers. More importantly, Syracuse basketball was just 10-of-20 from the free-throw line. Connecting on merely 50 percent from the charity stripe simply won’t do.

Otherwise, though, the Orange played quite well, limiting Brown to only 62 points while notching 93 points on offense versus a fairly credible Bears defense.

The ‘Cuse won the battle on the boards, collected nine steals, shared the ball with precision in producing 23 assists and only committed eight personal fouls.

To reiterate, Buddy Boeheim and Swider faring well from 3-point range are huge for Syracuse basketball moving forward. Junior center Jesse Edwards generated eight points, six boards and three blocks. He’s so vastly improved from a term ago.

Another center, sophomore Frank Anselem, was solid. And it was wonderful to see freshman forward Benny Williams contribute six points in about 17 minutes of action.