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Tuesday’s consolation matchup versus Gonzaga was another chance for Naheem McLeod to establish himself as a looming 7-foot-4 paint presence. Matched up with Bulldogs’ leading scorer Graham Ike, McLeod had a seven-inch height advantage. Yet, McLeod had three fouls by the end of the first half, while Ike already had a double-double.

As time ticked past the 2:00 mark, the Bulldogs were up 33-25 on the Orange. Gonzaga’s Dusty Stromer bricked a 3-pointer after Justin Taylor contested the shot. Positioned under the basket, McLeod couldn’t adjust to the ball’s trajectory, as Ben Gregg got the rebound near the free-throw line. Gregg swung it to Ryan Nembhard at the top of the key, who instantly blew by J.J. Starling to get into the paint.

McLeod stepped up to defend Nembhard, which left his man — Ike — wide-open on the left block. Nembhard quickly fed the Wyoming transfer and McLeod put his hands to his head in frustration as Ike threw down a ferocious jam to give the Bulldogs a 35-25 lead. Once McLeod earned his third foul on the other end, he was subbed out with no points to show for it.

En route to a blowout 76-57 defeat, Syracuse (3-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) was dismantled in the frontcourt, getting outrebounded 48-28 by No. 11 Gonzaga (3-1, 0-0 West Coast Conference) in its first consolation game of the 2023 Allstate Maui Invitational. The Bulldogs’ Ike and Anton Watson gave SU’s bigs fits all afternoon. McLeod, Maliq Brown and even Mounir Hima were consistently boxed out along with a poor output on the offensive end. Point guard Judah Mintz bounced back from his 4-for-14 performance against No. 7 Tennessee in the quarterfinals, but his 22 points weren’t enough for Syracuse.

“(Syracuse is) a tough team, they put up a lot of fight,” said Gonzaga guard Nolan Hickman, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points. “So, we buckled down.”

SU lost the paint battle from the opening possession. Ike back McLeod down in the paint and spun left for an easy layup. On the other end, a pass from McLeod intended for Chris Bell was intercepted and Gonzaga’s Anton Walton scored a wide-open transition lay-in. Ike drilled a short jumper over McLeod and drew a shooting foul as well, knocking both free throws down.

Once McLeod earned his second foul of the contest after reaching in on Ike, he was subbed out by SU head coach Adrian Autry for Brown at the 15:36 mark with Syracuse down eight. Ike had a game-high six points and three rebounds during McLeod’s initial appearance on the floor, as opposed to McLeod’s zero points and one rebound.

“Today, their big man was physical,” Autry said of Gonzaga’s Ike postgame. “He was posting up, he was trying to get the ball inside, which we hadn’t seen until today.”

Brown was initially an improved option at the 5 for Autry. He rose up to get a rebound on a missed mid-range shot from Mintz and tipped it back behind the arc for Taylor. The guard then swung it right for Bell on the wing, who drove inside and forced a shooting foul, knocking down 1-of-2 ensuing free throws.

Defensively, the Bulldogs’ ball movement confused Brown and the rest of the frontcourt. They had 10 assists compared to SU’s two after the opening 20 minutes, a major factor in Gonzaga’s 14-point halftime lead.

Right after Brown came on the floor, Nembhard drove by Starling and got into the paint. Brown looked confused on what to do, allowing Watson to cut from the left baseline and finish a dunk off a feed from Nembhard, putting the Bulldogs up 10.

“We didn’t do a good job of impacting the ball,” Autry said. “It was really Nembhard, he did a really good job of probing and getting into the lane and keeping our bigs occupied.”

In a surprise cameo, Hima checked in for Brown near the midway point of the first half. The game even was delayed for a short period of time due to Hima’s name not being listed at the scorer’s table. Hima’s performance, though, was indeed forgettable. He played for just three minutes and the only number on his stat line was a plus/minus of negative four.

On one instance with less than 11 minutes remaining in the half, Hima couldn’t locate a rebound after a miss from Nembhard. Watson flew in from the perimeter and hauled in the rebound, throwing down an emphatic putback dunk to increase Gonzaga’s lead to 21-8.

The one man who held Syracuse together was Mintz. He had a team-high 10 points in the first half and in the second, SU went to him seemingly every possession. Down 39-25 to begin the final 20 minutes, Mintz took the ball upcourt and made an aggressive charge at the rim. The preseason Bob Cousy award finalist performed a crafty layup, switching from his left to his right hand to bring Syracuse to a 39-27 deficit.

Mintz’ strong second half helped the Orange trail just 43-35 after scoring eight of its first 10 points. He got inside with ease, consistently and successfully finishing around Gonzaga bigs Ike and Huff. Mintz had 10 points in a nearly seven-minute spurt on the floor to commence the second half, but was subbed out for Kyle Cuffe Jr. to get a quick breather before the stretch run.

Once he got back in, Mintz provided Syracuse with some paint success. He passed to a cutting Brown, who finished a monstrous one-handed slam which brought Syracuse to a six-point deficit. Then, Mintz took it himself and drove from the left wing, finishing an up-and-under around Ike.

Despite Mintz’ heroics, where SU faltered was the weak performance from its bigs. After Syracuse went on an 8-2 run late as Gonzaga narrowly led 53-47, Ike ran through the lane from the right baseline causing Syracuse’s frontcourt to collide with each other, freeing space for Gregg in the left corner. At the same time, Nembhard patiently dribbled at the top of the key, feeding an open Gregg for a 3.

But what the game boiled down to was Ike’s performance down low. He got an offensive rebound over Brown at the 4:57 mark of the second half with Gonzaga leading 61-49, passing it back out for Nembhard who drew a Brown foul on the drive. He made the first free throw but missed the second, and Brown couldn’t pull in the rebound. Watson did, and the ensuing possession ended in a Nembhard made mid-range jumper.

“Late in the game, when we kind of clawed our way back into under double digits, I thought we had some really good defensive possessions but we just couldn’t finish the possession with a rebound,” Autry said.

Then, McLeod checked back in with 4:47 remaining. While he wasn’t the one who made the mistake, the disparity between his game and Ike’s became abundantly clear. Ike went out to the perimeter and guarded Mintz, sticking with the shifty guard. Ike poked the ball from Mintz when he tried to get inside the arc, and Nembhard threw down a dunk on the ensuing breakaway off the feed from Ike to make it 66-49.

Ike finished with 16 points and a game-best 14 boards — a far cry from McLeod and Brown’s combined nine points and seven rebounds. For Gonzaga head coach Mark Few, it was all part of his game plan.

“Today, we obviously knew we could establish Graham (Ike) a little bit more,” Few said. “It was going to be a little bit easier to get him some touches.”

Published on November 21, 2023 at 4:52 pm

Contact Cooper at: ccandrew@syr.edu | @cooper_andrews