ATLANTA — The best, most consistent player for Syracuse on Wednesday night was Michael Gbinije.

After taking the ball up the court with the game on the line in the final 12 minutes of Syracuse’s (11-4, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) 46-45 road win over Georgia Tech (9-5, 0-2), the junior forward finished with 14 points — 30.4 percent of his team’s scoring — and 10 rebounds. At times he was a highlight in a game generally lacking in them. At others he was like the rest of his teammates — sloppy, but good enough to win.

“Well he got off to a great start and then I think he felt he reached his quota and stopped,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what he was thinking.”

Though he committed just one turnover in the game, Gbinije did make plenty of mistakes, starting with the wide-open 3 he dribbled out of on SU’s second possession. He said he should’ve shot the 3 or driven straight to the basket.

Those same decision-making errors would arise late in the game too, but not before he carried the Orange through Georgia Tech’s occasional presses and Kaleb Joseph’s spotty minutes.

Gbinije had eight of Syracuse’s first 10 points. And with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half, he dribbled through the Yellow Jacket’s press, gliding past his man before throwing up two fingers to start the offense.

Rakeem Christmas, though on his way to 18 points and eight rebounds, was struggling to get into good position on his shots from the post. Trevor Cooney shot 3-of-10 from the field and Joseph was in and out of the game, still an inconsistent freshman point guard.

“We’ve got to get somebody else going,” Boeheim said.

Coming out of a timeout with 1:17 left in the game and SU down by one, Gbinije threw up a 15-foot fadeaway that barely caught the front of the rim.

“(Boeheim) let me have it,” Gbinije said. “He made it known to not take that shot anymore, so I’ll limit that.

“He just asked me what I was thinking and I told him what I was thinking and he basically said we don’t do that here.”

Gbinije said he was just trying to make a play. He had, but he was leading a team that largely hadn’t.

Said Boeheim: “Fortunately, Mike has picked it up but we’ve got to get another guy or two to pick it up.”

Published on January 8, 2015 at 12:41 am

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_