Editor’s Note: The Daily Orange decided not to drive to Charlottesville, Virginia for Sunday night’s game between Syracuse and Virginia due to safety concerns stemming from the snowstorm.

Syracuse (13-8, 3-5 Atlantic Coast) fell to No. 13 Virginia (15-4, 4-3), 73-65, on Sunday night in Charlottesville, Virginia. After ripping off three straight wins in conference, the Orange was unable to crack a Cavaliers team stringent on the inside despite a late aerial attack from behind the arc. Michael Gbinije and Malachi Richardson led Syracuse with 24 and 23 points, respectively, but SU let a chance at a signature win slip away.

Here are three quick observations from the game.

Get rich quick

Syracuse struggled to penetrate Virginia’s patented pack-line defense, so it had to put its fate mainly in the hands of Richardson, Gbinije and Trevor Cooney from beyond the arc. The freshman hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first half to save an Orange team that still trailed by eight at the break.

When Richardson hit his second 3 of the second half to cut UVA’s lead to four with just under six minutes left, he put his pointer finger to his mouth to silence the home crowd. Then when he pulled from well beyond the arc and hit with 30 seconds left in the game, Syracuse’s hopes stayed alive as the Orange cut the Cavaliers lead to three.

The freshman finished 6-of-10 from behind the arc and tallied his highest scoring output of the season. But despite it being an impressive complementary effort to Gbinije’s team-leading 24, hitting almost half of Syracuse’s 13 3s wasn’t enough.

On the offensive

Tyler Roberson slathered a career-high 20 rebounds on Duke last Monday, but into the second half against Virginia he hadn’t grabbed a single board. His first chance of the second half slipped right through his hands and out of bounds as Syracuse struggled to cut into UVA’s lead.

Roberson grabbed four offensive rebounds in the second half and SU held its own on the boards, clawing back into the game. Syracuse cleaned up nine offensive rebounds, but the supporting efforts on the offensive glass were absent.

Virginia grabbed 27 defensive rebounds and prevented Roberson and SU from the second- and third-chance points it had to pull ahead of the Blue Devils last Monday.

Painted

Syracuse scored a meager two points in the paint in the second half as Virginia’s frontcourt negated Roberson and Tyler Lydon from scoring for the majority of the night.

The tandem accounted for only eight points while Syracuse lived from beyond the arc. Despite the Orange only losing the rebounding battle by three, it’s frontcourt offense wasn’t nearly enough to crack the back line led by Anthony Gill.

SU also struggled to convert at the rim as 13 of its 21 made field goals came from behind the arc while Virginia roasted SU inside on the other end.

Published on January 24, 2016 at 9:08 pm