Highlights & Recap: Syracuse 72 Miami 69
This mid-January matchup for conference opponents from opposite ends of the country with the exact same record was an important game for both teams. Syracuse came in fresh off completing a season sweep of Jeff Capel’s Pitt squad, their best wins to date, but still seeking to find out where they sat in the ACC. Miami came in after a brutal loss to in-state rival Florida State, with star transfer Matthew Cleveland totaling just two points against his former team, and looking to work their way back to the top of the ACC after coming into the preseason an AP Top 10 team.
The Hurricanes took a big blow when it was announced less than thirty minutes before game time that Norchad Omier, their leading scorer and rebounder and one of the three starters from last year’s Final Four run, would be sitting out with a lower extremity injury. The Orange came in with a much more somber mood, honoring 22-year-old student manager Liam Zoghby, who passed away tragically from complications from an aneurism on January 12th, with a moment of silence before the game.
Most of the Syracuse football team and staff, including Fran Brown, Nick Williams, and star returning transfer DB Duce Chesnut, were in attendance for this matchup, and this game did not disappoint. Miami shot out to a 10-2 start before a JJ Starling three cut the lead to five, but Syracuse cut it to a 2-point lead at the second media timeout despite going just 4-for-14 in the first eight minutes.
It was a back-and-forth affair for much of the first half until Miami opened up an eight-point lead with a little over four minutes left in the first half. However, a JJ Starling three, his third of the first half, cut the Miami lead to two with two minutes left, and the Hurricanes clung to a 31-30 lead, which Quadir Copeland nearly flipped, finishing a layup after the first half buzzer sounded.
Miami got out to a 5-point lead to start the second half, but Matthew Cleveland and JJ Starling began trading buckets, with Starling hitting his 4th three of the game to tie it up 39-all with 11:47 left. Eight straight points from Nigel Pack pushed the Miami advantage to four, and the lead was pushed to seven after a Matthew Cleveland jam.
As tight as the first 32 minutes of the game was, the eight-minute stretch to finish the game was pandemonium. Starling’s fifth three of the game tied it back up with four minutes left, only for Bensley Joseph to hit a tough step-back triple. That was followed up with a Chris Bell tie it back with his fourth three of the game. Maliq Brown gave the Orange their first lead of the second half with 3:10 left with the offensive rebound after a missed Mintz layup.
Seven straight points from freshman Kyshawn George had Miami tied at 67 after a banked-in three with less than a minute left. Despite that, Syracuse had a chance to win after a Bensley Joseph miss and an Orange timeout with 18.6 seconds left. With the game on the line, Coach Autry stated in the post-game presser that he was intentional about putting the ball in his best player’s hands and letting him go make a play.
Mintz isolated at the top of the key, he drove right with about three seconds left, and fired a bullet to the opposite wing into the waiting hands of Quadir Copeland, resulting in Judah’s 13th assist and a game-winning triple for the super sixth man from Philadelphia. At 4-3 in ACC play and 13-5 overall, Syracuse is building momentum for the late-season push, having won three of their last four ACC games and with three winnable games ahead of them against Florida State, NC State, and Boston College before going on the road for a big quad one opportunity at Wake Forest on February 3rd.
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