Takeaways from Syracuse's second half collapse in its 88-83 defeat at Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Raise your hand if you have seen this Syracuse basketball act this season.

After draining 10 3-pointers in the first half on route to scoring 46 points and leading by four at halftime, Syracuse (15-14, 6-10) saw the third lead change of the game become the final one, as Wake Forest (15-14, 6-10) dominated over the final 10 minutes to hand the 'Cuse its third straight defeat Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 9,208 at Joel Coliseum.

It was the fashion in which the lead evaporated, as the Orange defense promptly gave up 46 points to the Deacs, and no matter how hard he implored his team from the sideline, Autry could only watch helplessly from the bench as the lead evaporated and so did the 'Cuse's chances of locking up an ACC Tournament spot.

Wake Forest guard Myles Colvin was a sharp-shooting magician on the floorfinoshingn with a game-high 32 points, and he only missed four shots the entire game from the field (9-12 FGs, 6-7 3's, 7-7 FTs).

With two games left, SU needs to at least split the Louisville rosd game and the Pittsburgh home game to shed any concerns of falling to the 16th spot in the standings which means disqualification from the ACC tourney.

Autry's anger was obvious in his postgame remarks

In a lost season that is running out of games on the schedule to culminate the head coach's tenure running the program at his alma mater, Autry did not mince words from the get-go Saturday night.

Clearly upset with not only watching his team lose its third consecutive game and fall to just 2-6 in conference road games this season with a trip to 24th ranked Louisville coming up on Tuesday, Autry ripped into his team's lack of toughness and effort on the defensive end of the floor.

"You;ve got to be tough, and you've got to play at both ends of the floor in (college) basketball," an agitated Autry said in his opening postgame statement.

"Towards the end when they made their run (eight consecutive Wake baskets at one point, and 10-of-11 overall down the stretch), we couldn't get a stop," he added. "And on offense, we got pushed around. You have got to be tough to play college basketball."

He scored 20 points and shot well, but Nate KIngz was practically speechless about the team's ailments

Kingz had a pretty good shooting game overall and hit 5-of-9 from long range to finish just behind Donnie Freeman's 28 points, but he struggled on defense and had no rebounds, and was on the bench latein crunch time, replaced by Tyler Betsey.

Along with the rest of his teammates receiving the postgame stern words from Autry over the lack of playing up to the level the coaching staff expects, Kingz was cognicent of hois own struggles ont he defensive end of the floor.

"It happened on the defensive end, our effort wasn't there in the second half, me included, maybe more so than others," Kingz confessed after the defeat and acknowledging his benching for Betsey.

"Everyday in practice we work on it (team defense)," Kingz added. "We study what we're supposed to do against each individual team and I can't really pinpoint why (it is not working on "D. I just don't have an answer."

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