Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

It started with a slap. After Judah Mintz untangled his leg from a Bryant defender sprawled out on the floor, Doug Edert said something behind him. Mintz responded with a little love tap directed at Edert’s chin before turning back around. Edert countered with a stronger slap on the back of Mintz’s head, and what ensued next was a lengthy meeting between all three referees.

Mintz and Edert were ejected, along with two other Bryant players, Syracuse assistant coaches Adrian Autry, Allen Griffin and Peter Corasaniti as well as Bryant assistants Phil Martelli Jr. and Chris Cole.

This wasn’t the Oscars, but the series of slaps did change the course of the night. Bryant could manage without Edert, even though the former Saint Peters guard responsible for the team’s Cinderella run last year was coming off a 23-point performance. But the Orange had to replace Mintz, who Jim Boeheim said postgame is their best player, and Benny Williams, who left midway through the game due to sickness. 

Justin Taylor was ready. Something he said he’s been the entire season, knowing that he could be necessary based on “whatever happens.” He was in the game when Mintz was ejected, and cashed in from deep on the ensuing possession.

Chris Bell started hitting as well at the end of the second half, following up with a baseline fadeaway jumper with a 3 from the right wing to give Syracuse its first lead of the evening. Taylor finished with a career-high 25 points in a season-high 26 minutes while Bell notched 14 points, his third straight double-digit performance.  

“Without Benny, without Judah, we’re really in a hard situation,” Boeheim said. “They both really played well, really played well.” 

Taylor took a final trip to the line with 20 seconds left, moments after Joe Girard III turned the ball over to allow Bryant to retake the lead, sinking the first shot. But his second heave clanked off the front rim, and Sherif Gross-Bullock scored over Taylor and Peter Carey with less than a second on the clock to give Bryant (5-1, 0-0 America East) the final advantage in its 73-72 win over Syracuse (3-3, 0-0 Atlantic Coast). The slap ended in another slap in the face for SU, who are now sitting at .500 in nonconference play.  

Mintz scored seven points before his ejection, though Boeheim pulled him out less than three minutes into the game after he opted to shoot from deep instead of attacking inside on a certain set play. Symir Torrence took over as point guard after Mintz was thrown out, creating looks similar to the freshman by driving down the right side of the lane with 5:42 left on the clock in the first half and banking in a layup. Taylor also found some success in the first half, finishing with a team-high nine points.

Bryant continued to run its offense without Edert, finding looks from the top of the key or the corners while Antwan Walker and its other bigs got open directly under the basket. After Walker scored inside, Charles Pride drove hard from the left baseline. He ended up on the other side of the basket, leaping up before firing the ball back to Miles Latimer, who took over Pride’s vacated spot. Latimer nailed the 3, forcing Boeheim to call up a timeout while Bryant led by 13. 

The offense looked better in the second half with Taylor and Bell, but the defense still struggled — something that will continue to make or break Syracuse’s season. The attempts that Bryant missed earlier in the game from deep started to fall in. 

Latimer drained a shot from deep, finding the bottom of the net after a string of passes landed in his hands in the right corner. Less than a minute later, Gross-Bullock hit a 3 unmarked at the top of the key to give Bryant a 50-37 lead. 

Girard was virtually nonexistent throughout the matchup, though he sank two free throws in the game’s final 30 seconds to put the Orange back on top by one. Girard shifted to more of a point guard role at the end of the game, Taylor said, locating Taylor wide open from the right wing with 13 minutes left.

“Joe and Jesse are going to do most of the scoring for us, they left me open on the first 3, so I was going to hit that,” Taylor said. “I was just making the most of my opportunities, they did a good job of kicking it out to me.”

Taylor kept getting looks, firing from the right wing after a timely pass from Edwards with his attempt rattling in-and-out of the rim. John Bol Ajak was there on the glass for cleanup though, finding Taylor a possession later to cut Bryant’s lead to eight.

Taylor got to the line too, going 1-for-2 once before sinking a shot from the charity stripe after another technical foul. With seven minutes left, Taylor collected the rebound from his own missed shot before dribbling behind his back and nailing a pull-up jumper. His success allowed Bell to get open as well, scoring from the elbow off a pass from Bol Ajak.

Following a layup from Earl Timberlake, Girard secured a missed 3-pointer and took the ball up with four minutes left. He found Taylor wide open at the right wing, again, to bring the Orange within one.

“I was just finding my areas and making a play,” Taylor said.

The Bulldogs started to heavily guard Taylor, putting more pressure on him beyond the arc. Because of this, Taylor pushed the ball inside to Bol Ajak, who kicked it out to Bell, again, with 90 seconds left in the game. He knocked down the 3 from near the top of the key, calmly walking back while patting three fingers on his forehead to give Syracuse a 66-65 lead.

Without openings from outside, Taylor attacked the basket and was granted a trip to the foul line with 50 seconds left. He got an extra two attempts because Antwan Walker contested the call and got a technical. Taylor went 3-of-4 from the line to extend the lead, but an errant pass to Girard allowed Gross-Bullock to retake the lead for Bryant with an emphatic dunk, moments before his final dagger.

“They really tried to get us back in the game,” Boeheim said about Bell and Taylor.

Published on November 26, 2022 at 6:54 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu