Syracuse Struggles Against Another Ranked Team
Being nationally televised on ESPN, the Orange struggled in one of their biggest matchups this season, falling 81-58 to the Cavaliers. Continuing to struggle on the road, Syracuse has lost 4/5 road games this season. Slow starts have continued to haunt the Orange all season long.
Syracuse led 6-2 to start the game, but Virginia took a quick 14-6 lead mid-way through the first half. The Orange need to find ways to get points up on the board quickly, or else they will continue to find themselves in early holes that are hard to dig themselves out of. Struggling to score the basketball on the road, accompanied by poor three-point shooting has only hurt the Orange this season.
The Orange struggled going 2-11 from beyond the arc in the first half, finishing with a poor 20.8% for the game. Virginia on the other hand had their way with the Orange from beyond the arc. The Cavaliers were able to break through Syracuse’s zone defense all game long, knocking down 14 three-pointers on 31 attempts.
Still considered the defending champs, the Cavaliers are putting themselves in a good position to go “back-to-back.” Virginia has played well at home this year with a strong 7-1 start. The Cavaliers are allowing about 250 fans inside of the John Paul Jones Arena, but there really is no such thing as homecourt advantage this year amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Coach Boeheim and the Orange knew this game was going to be a challenge having to overcome the adversity of not performing well on the road.
Frustrations continued all game long for the Orange, turning the ball over a total of 12 times. Coach Boeheim was noticeably frustrated on the bench, laying into a couple of his players during the game. A not so sweet Orange performance equals a not so sweet Coach Boeheim.
Virginia guard Kihei Clark absolutely tore up Syracuse’s zone defense. His quick ball handling skills enabled him to sneak into Syracuse’s zone defense, dishing out nine assists in the game. Clarks first three assists of the game were ally-oop dunks, absolutely exploiting Syracuse’s incapability to protect the paint.
Forward Sam Hauser led the Cavaliers with 21 points, going 7/12 from downtown. Josh Huff had his way notching a double-double, tallying 21 points and 10 rebounds. It was challenging for the Orange to slow down the Cavaliers top two players with the way their zone defense was running this game.
This is the first time this year the Orange have been held to under at least 60 points. Quincy Guerrier (15) and Alan Griffin (13) led the way in scoring, but it was hard to get points up on the board without their other three starters producing much help.
The Orange should not take this loss too harshly, as they travel back home for their next game where they have found a lot of success this season (8-1). Syracuse finds themselves in a favorable match-up on Sunday against NC State at 6:00 PM.
