Jim Boeheim whipped two fingers toward his face midway through the first half as Joe Girard III gripped the ball. He needed Marek Dolezaj to pop up. The opening was there again, the same one Buddy Boeheim had noticed after Syracuse’s first offensive possession and pointed out. When he or Girard floated the ball inside, their North Florida defender would peel, leaving an opening behind the 3-point line.

Dolezaj said after the game it’s tough to look behind at Buddy or Girard. His instinct is to scan the opposite side of the court — where help defenders often sag into the paint. But this time, Dolezaj locked eyes with Girard after cutting to the elbow, and returned a quick pass that extended a one-point Syracuse lead to four.

Dolezaj’s eight assists and facilitation role from inside the NFU zone allowed the Orange’s offense to operate with an efficiency needed to counter the Ospreys’ 46 3-point attempts — their life and death on offense. UNF’s strength mirrored Syracuse’s, and when the two programs collided it was the Orange who countered with balance.

“(Dolezaj) can do a little bit of everything,” Buddy said. “In situations like that in a zone, when he gets in there and no one’s near him, he’s going to make the right play.”

In another nonconference game tattooed with upset potential for the first 30 minutes, against a North Florida (7-7) program destined for mediocrity, five players with double-digit scoring led and Dolezaj’s interior point guard role lifted the Orange (7-5, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) to an 82-70 win.

“We only turned the ball over four times today, we had 22 assists on 27 baskets,” Boeheim said. “I don’t think you can do much better than that.”

With an NCAA Tournament, and even NIT, berth leaking away with every loss and only looking slightly better after an offensive outburst against Georgia Tech, the margin for error in Syracuse’s final contests before conference play was slim. The Ospreys presented the toughest opponent in the trio of games — Oakland, UNF and Niagara — but their red flags stood out like any mid-major program aiming for an upset.

Gradually, North Florida found enough space to sink open looks. After Ivan Gandia-Rosa made a 3 to give the Ospreys one of 11 first-half lead changes, Girard held his hand in the air as Dolezaj (17 points, eight assists) grabbed the ball for the inbounds pass. He had closed out on the shot, tightening the window for Gandia-Rosa, but it didn’t matter.

“No matter where you go, they’re going to get some looks,” Boeheim said.

Jordan Phelps | Staff Photographer

The Osprey’s five starters averaged a 45.56% shooting percentage from behind the arc entering Saturday’s game. When UNF came out for warm-ups, they consistently launched 3-point shots while Syracuse alternated on their end of the floor. UNF finished with the most 3-point attempts (46) SU has ever faced — the previous record was 40 — and the top of SU’s zone was the most important. Close-outs needed to be crisp, fluid and smooth.

That eventually became the flow of the game: UNF continually depending on the deep ball, Syracuse finding a balance of what worked. While the Ospreys shot their way to 4-for-14 from 3 early on and 8-for-22 by halftime, Syracuse’s approach switched after the under-16 media timeout to using Dolezaj as a facilitator. He assisted on two consecutive Hughes baskets – one a backdoor cut and one a jumper – and converted on floaters of his own. When that glance at the guard didn’t look promising, Dolezaj drove and finished through contact at the blocks.

“You don’t ever see that, where they’re going inside and they’re not really almost ever shooting that in there,” Boeheim said. “They’re just going in to get you to collapse and they’re throwing out and they’ve got three guys out there.”

An offensive approach similar to SU’s air-raid was all but mitigated by a poor defense of their own strength. UNF’s zone opened with fluttering arms that aimed to eliminate 3-pointers from the wing. But with one extra pass, that left the corners open. Hughes opened the game with a 3 from the right one, and within the first four minutes SU had four shots from those spots.

But offensive rebounds allowed the Ospreys to extend possessions and stick with the Orange. After Bourama Sidibe dunked, Trip Day followed with a layup. After Buddy made a 3 off a Dolezaj pass, Carter Hendricksen followed with a jumper. Wins against mid-major opponents aren’t ones to erase high-major losses to Iowa, Virginia and Georgetown. A scarred tournament resume will take ACC wins and upsets to heal. Losses only deepen that hole, though, and until the final dozen minutes one seemed possible. 

After Buddy Boeheim’s runner rattled in with 11:18 remaining, Girard pumped his arms and slapped the Carrier Dome floor. The rest of Syracuse’s defense settled into the 2-3 zone, and waited. North Florida’s next possession would likely end in a 3-point shot, as nearly all its others to that point had. And the Orange were right: Hendricksen shot a 3-pointer that bounced out. 

One set later, Girard walked into a 3-point shot of his own on the left wing. A swish of the ball was followed by a roar from the freshman point guard as he neared mid-court. The assist came from Dolezaj in the post, his eighth and final of the night, and fans rose around Girard as the North Florida bodies sulked toward the bench. 

“That was the open area to get the ball,” Boeheim said.

The Ospreys’ greatest threat became what Syracuse used to pull away. But it was a balanced offense along the way that made the difference.

Published on December 21, 2019 at 8:16 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew