During a timeout, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim told freshman forward Oshae Brissett a screen would come his way from the weak side.

“OK, coach,” Boeheim recalled Brissett saying in the team huddle.

“He ran right into the screen,” Boeheim said later. “He said, ‘Well, I tried.’ I said it’s not good enough to try. You have to go around the screen and be there. But that’s what happens when you have freshmen. They’re not going to be able to do some of those things.”

Brissett, Syracuse’s 6-foot-8 freshman forward represents the youth of SU this season, Boeheim said. Brissett has said he is nervous in the beginning of games, which contributes to why many of his first shots are too strong. In Syracuse’s (2-0) 71-62 victory over Iona (0-2) Tuesday night inside the Carrier Dome, Brissett did not work around the screen Boeheim warned about, nor did he knock down any of his first three shots.

“Still learning,” Brissett said.

He progressed in the game, hitting on four of his next six shots for 12 points across 37 minutes on the floor. Given that redshirt freshman forward Matthew Moyer has not contributed much offensively — he scored zero points in 18 minutes Tuesday — Brissett provides the bulk of Syracuse’s scoring at the forward position.

Boeheim said Brissett’s next step is attacking the basket with more effectiveness and crashing the boards. He lost possession of the ball on his first drive attempt of the second half, going left on the baseline. A few possessions later, he knocked down a pull-up jumper around the free-throw line. He finished with two assists and three rebounds.

Marek Dolezaj’s weight not an issue

Dolezaj, a 6-foot-9, 180-pound forward, played 22 minutes off the bench. He scored seven points on 3-for-5 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. He entered the game about six and half minutes in.

He allowed Iona forward TK Edogi behind him on the left side of the zone, and Edogi delivered. He caught an alley-oop over Dolezaj and dunked the ball despite a foul. Later, Dolezaj traveled on his first catch near the rim, but he picked up a steal and hustled on a transition play to receive a feed from Tyus Battle and score two points.

“Dolezaj goes after the ball, he really hustles,” Boeheim said. “His shooting … it’s a long ways away. Everybody talks about strength. (Syracuse 2005 first-round NBA Draft pick) Hakim Warrick weighed 160 pounds when he came in here as a freshman. He was pretty good. Never weighed more than 180. Everybody talks about weight and they want to be negative. That has nothing to do with it. He’ll be fine. He’s thin so he can move faster.”

Battle, Howard play bulk of minutes at guard

Battle and Howard played 35 and 40 minutes, respectively, as fellow guard Howard Washington did not play. Graduate transfer Geno Thorpe played only eight minutes because “he was terrible,” Boeheim said. Thorpe had one turnover and shot 1-for-3.

Battle scored a career-high 28 points and Howard added a career-high in points of his own, 15, to go along with four rebounds and three assists.

“Frank got to the basket,” Boeheim said. “I thought he had a few places where he could have played up. He never really played the point in high school … it will take him a little while to get used to it. Tonight was a good step, really good step.”

Fast break defense

Iona scored 10 fast-break points. The up-tempo-minded Gaels beat SU up the floor several other times but did not convert. Boeheim said after the game that SU needs to get back quicker to prevent transition baskets, which came from both long rebounds and made baskets.

“Their forwards leaked out right when we got a basket,” Syracuse junior center Paschal Chukwu said. “So the centers, when we went for rebounds, they were leaking out. We just need to recognize that and definitely try and get back.”

Published on November 14, 2017 at 10:59 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21