Syracuse’s zone cornered North Florida, which has given away more possessions than any other team in the country, plenty of times. The Orange forced the Ospreys to hang on to the ball as the final seconds ticked down the shot clock.

But more often than not, North Florida found windows, even heavily guarded ones, to shoot. The Ospreys corralled one of their 38 missed shots 17 times. With every offensive rebound, the shot clock reset and North Florida kept possession instead of SU going on offense.

“It does (get frustrating),” Andrew White said. “You work hard for the shot clock, and to reset that same possession, it’s tough.”

SU wasn’t roughed up on defense like it was on Tuesday against Wisconsin, but North Florida was able to stay close to the Orange because of a 41-33 advantage on the boards. No. 22 Syracuse (5-2) barely hung on against the Ospreys (3-7), winning 77-71 and snapping a two-game losing streak.

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MORE COVERAGE:

• Andrew White’s 26 points carry Syracuse men’s basketball in 77-71 win over North Florida
• Gallery: No. 22 Syracuse men’s basketball slips past North Florida

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Part of the problem was rooted in SU’s biggest lineup change of the season. Freshman Tyus Battle replaced senior forward Tyler Roberson in the starting lineup, bumping White to small forward and Tyler Lydon to power forward. It was admittedly a defensive concession by head coach Jim Boeheim, but one he was willing to make with Roberson playing 34 minutes across the last two games and scoring only one point.

Boeheim said his starters gave up only 3-4 more offensive rebounds than he would have liked, but that was part of the reason the Ospreys trimmed Syracuse’s lead from 24 to seven in about eight minutes. The visitors nabbed five offensive rebounds in that span, scoring off three of those reset possessions.

“I guess we already knew we were going to win coming into the game and throughout the game,” freshman Taurean Thompson said. “That’s why they came back. We were just waiting for the game to be over, so I guess they had more fight on the boards.”

In the zone defense SU deploys, the key to rebounding lies in positioning, and in Boeheim’s words: “You just have to go get it.” But unlike other downfalls of SU this year, inexperience wasn’t the root of Saturday’s problem. White and Battle were the two first-year players to get the most playing time, while Thompson only played eight minutes and Paschal Chukwu didn’t at all.

It was the starters who had plenty of rebound opportunities slip through their hands, and Syracuse only perpetuated a defensive rebound percentage that was the second-worst in the Atlantic Coast Conference coming in to the game.

“It’s something that we can’t let keep happening,” Lydon said of the team’s rebounding struggles. “Against really good teams, against a lot of teams. I think they took advantage of it tonight.”

After outrebounding its first four opponents, Syracuse has now lost the battle on the boards in three consecutive games. The first two were losses, and Saturday just barely went down as a win.

Published on December 3, 2016 at 8:18 pm

Contact Connor: cgrossma@syr.edu | @connorgrossman