CLEMSON, S.C — Kaleb Joseph has never played so well in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The freshman point guard delivered 12 points, two assists to one turnover and a rebound in 33 minutes of Syracuse’s (13-5, 4-1 ACC) 66-53 loss to Clemson (10-7, 2-3) on Saturday evening at Littlejohn Coliseum.

His scoring was a necessity on a night when Trevor Cooney and Michael Gbinije were all but silenced. For much of the season, Joseph’s play has been restricted to perimeter passing. Opposing teams give him space to shoot, as he’s only taken 22 3s on the season and made just four of them.

But on Saturday night he consistently cut into the lane, creating a flurry of open looks from the elbows and improved as the game went on.

“Kaleb does some crazy stuff,” Jim Boeheim said. “That’s just normal for a freshman, but he was more aggressive in the second half, he got in the lane and he got some good shots.”

It’s an offensive output Boeheim said Joseph will have to reproduce. With Chris McCullough out for the season, Syracuse lacks a clear fourth scoring option after Rakeem Christmas, Cooney and Gbinije.

Joseph’s 12 points represented 22.6 percent of SU’s scoring against the Tigers. In addition to Saturday’s game being his third-highest scoring performance, it was the largest share of the Orange’s points he’s had this season.

The only other time Joseph had more than 20 percent of Syracuse’s points was when his 13 points accounted for 22 percent of SU’s total of 59 in its loss to California on Nov. 20 in the 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden.

Fellow SU guard Cooney chalked Joseph’s performance up to simply understanding the offense a little better. Joseph left the game with 18:13 left in the first half — after committing a foul on an off-balance Rod Hall. He departed again with 3:39 remaining in the game, but played the final 1:29. Ron Patterson came on for Joseph each time but failed to score, and the freshman point guard returned.

And while Joseph improved to 4-of-7 shooting in the second half after going 1-for-6 from the field before halftime, the point guard said he was taking good shots and staying confident the whole time.

“They were all good shots, but I can’t stop shooting just because I’m not making good shots,” Joseph said. “… I think in the first half I was aggressive, in the second half I was aggressive, and good things happen.”

Published on January 17, 2015 at 9:50 pm

Contact Jacob: jmklinge@syr.edu | @Jacob_Klinger_