Five Takeaways: Syracuse 72 Wake Forest 63

Syracuse basketball beat Wake Forest 72-63 on Senior Night in the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday. Here are five takeaways from the Orange's victory.

1. That Was Needed

Syracuse basketball needed this. The players, the coaches, the fan base. Losing four in a row is never enjoyable, but it is far worse when none of them are competitive and the last of that streak includes a blowout loss to a sub .500 team. This cleanses the palate a bit. It does not solve any longterm issues/concerns, nor does it suddenly make this year's team great or anything, but this win was absolutely needed. Especially while celebrating the National Championship team and honoring Gerry McNamara and Hakim Warrick. A fifth straight loss would have negatively impacted those celebrations, in my opinion.

2. Jesse Edwards

What can be said about how dominant Edwards was? His stat line is impressive enough. He scored 27 points on 11-15 shooting, grabbed 20 rebounds, had five steals and blocks two shots. The historical context of that is even more impressive. Edwards became the first ACC player in 25 seasons to record 20 points, 20 rebounds and five steals in a single game. It was the twelfth 20 point, 20 rebound game in Syracuse basketball history and first since 2009 (Paul Harris vs UConn in 6OT game). It was the first regulation 20 point, 20 rebound game since 1990 (Derrick Coleman). Incredible.

3. Defense

Wow the defense was light years better than it had been the previous few games. It was much more active, forced turnovers and contested shots. Sure Wake got a few open looks, but they were primarily during a stretch in the first half when the Deacs made five straight threes. Other than that stretch, Wake was just 5-34 from beyond the arc. The Orange forced 16 turnovers, 13 of which were off of steals. That defensive effort consistently would give Syracuse a shot to make a run in the ACC Tournament.

4. Two Negatives

There were really two negatives from the performance. Outside shooting and turnovers. Syracuse turned it over 14 times, which led to 20 Wake Forest points. The Orange needs to take better care of the basketball in order to not give teams easy buckets, especially when the defense is playing well. Joe Girard and Chris Bell were a 2-13 from three point range. Both had good looks but struggled to hit them. Syracuse is not going to take a lot of threes, but has to be more efficient when they do.

5. Twice in a Row

It is not easy to beat a team multiple times in the same season. It is even more difficult to beat the same team two games in a row. That is the task ahead of Syracuse as it will face Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament on Wednesday after beating them in the regular season finale Saturday night. That is difficult enough but the game will be in Greensboro (NC), making it much closer to a home game than a road game for the Demon Deacons. This will be a tough test for the Orange, but it should have confidence given how Saturday night went. Especially defensively.

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