Syracuse's Second Half Rally Comes Up Short at #11 Virginia

Syracuse made a furious second half rally that was not enough as the Orange fell at 11th ranked Virginia 73-66 on Saturday. With the loss, the Orange drops to 10-6 (3-2) on the season. Next up is Virginia Tech on Wednesday in the JMA Wireless Dome. That game tips at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Virginia started out hot from the outside, and jumped out to an early nine point lead in the first few minutes as a result. Syracuse tried to climb back, but the Cavs continued to shoot the ball well and force Orange turnovers. In the final four minutes of the first half, Syracuse made a push that suggested they could make it a game in the second half.

"Obviously they got off to a great start shooting the ball," head coach Jim Boeheim said after the game. "We did a little better job defensively after the first part. Battled back a little bit. We just made some many mistakes that we really haven't been making. Missed a few layups. Jesse missed two, Joe missed two in the first half. You can't do that against Virginia or anybody, especially on the road."

Virginia pushed the lead to as much as 17 in the first half, but Syracuse went on an 8-0 run before halftime to trim the lead to nine. In the second half, however, Virginia opened up on fire again. The Cavs went on a 15-1 run to push the lead to 23.

Syracuse seemed out of it at that point, but the Orange was able to make a push. Behind a 13-0 run, the lead was trimmed to nine with about four minutes to play. The full court press got Virginia out of its offensive rhythm, and Syracuse made some plays on the offensive end to get back into it. The lead dropped to eight with about 2:12 to go after Joe Girard scored six points in six seconds.

The Cavs made the plays in the final two minutes, however, to secure the win.

"I though the last 12 minutes we moved better offensively," Boeheim said. "We really only got one steal out of the press but we I thought we got better movement on offense and we got Joe some shots. Joe and Judah were two for seven, one for seven, in the first half, something like that. We need those two guys to score. The last 10-12 minutes they were both well into double figures and got us back a little bit. But it was too much. We weren't going to get back all the way. But I'm proud of the way we fought back."

It was the second straight game where turnovers were a major problem for Syracuse, as the Orange committed 16 in this game that led to 23 points for Virginia. Syracuse actually outrebounded Virginia 37 to 30 in this one, out-shot Virginia 44% to 43% overall and 57% to 46% from three point range.

Syracuse was without starting forward Benny Williams, who missed the game due to an illness. In his place, John Bol Ajak received his first start. Malik Brown received most of Williams' minutes, however. Brown finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in 36 minutes.

"I thought Maliq playing (almost) 40 minutes, he hasn't played all that much, I thought he was really good," Boeheim said. "I thought Chris (Bell) and Justin (Taylor) were good."

The Orange backcourt of Judah Mintz and Joe Girard finished with 36 points including 6-10 from three point range.

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