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Syracuse’s 2024 portion of its schedule couldn’t have gone much worse. The Orange sat under .500 while dropping conference games to Notre Dame and Wake Forest. To begin 2025 versus Florida State in Tallahassee, the Orange received the best possible news ahead of tip-off — J.J. Starling was ready to return from his broken left hand.

In Starling’s absence, SU lost five of its seven games, desperately lacking his scoring prowess and needed ball-handling alongside Jaquan Carlos. But even with their star back in action, the Orange’s losing ways persisted.

Syracuse (6-8, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) fell 90-74 to Florida State (10-4, 1-2 ACC), dropping its third straight conference game. In his return, Starling played 32 minutes but scored 12 points while shooting 5-of-16 from the field. Meanwhile, the Seminoles shot 53.6% from the floor and never trailed in the second half. SU, Miami and California are the only three teams without a win in ACC play.

“Having J.J. back, that was probably the best news we had,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said postgame. “And, again, not playing for a couple of weeks, I thought he gave us an injection, energy, getting to the basket, creating for others. And so, we just got to keep building on that.”

With the Orange all but eliminated from gaining an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after their poor nonconference play, dominating the ACC is their only avenue toward snapping their three-season March Madness absence. While winning in Tallahassee was a near necessity because of its winless start to conference play, SU collapsed down the stretch, leading to another embarrassing loss.

“I thought the score did not indicate how close the game was,” Autry said. “We got to about (73-66), we just didn’t cash in when we needed to.”

The first half didn’t see either team jump out to a lead of more than a couple of possessions; unlike its bout against Wake Forest, when Syracuse quickly fell behind by 14. Following how poorly it started Tuesday, Autry made a lineup change versus WF and carried over that strategy to Tallahassee, sending Chris Bell and Elijah Moore — who played just six minutes — back to the bench in place of Lucas Taylor and Starling.

Instantly, Starling kickstarted Syracuse’s offense. The 19.8-points-per-game scorer drilled his first two shots — a 3 and mid-range pull-up — before Taylor nailed a corner 3 and Eddie Lampkin Jr. scored inside to give SU a 12-10 lead four minutes in.

“It was basically all up to me with how I was feeling mentally,” Starling said of returning versus FSU. “I felt good, and I felt like today was a good game to come back in. I had two live practices under my belt, so I wanted to come back.”

While the Seminoles responded with eight straight points, Starling’s seventh point stopped the run and helped SU pull within four halfway through the half. To regain the lead, the Orange were sparked by Bell.

Coming off the bench for the first time this season, Bell first entered the game at the 11:19 mark. Just over a minute later, he drew a foul on a 3-point attempt and drained all three shots from the charity stripe, giving SU a 21-19 lead. FSU quickly responded with four consecutive points, but Bell’s corner 3 to grab the lead right back.

“As soon as I saw it go through the net, I knew it was gonna be a good night shooting the ball,” Bell said.

It was Bell’s first made triple in over a month, last converting from behind the arc on Dec. 3 against Tennessee. The junior made 42% of his 3s last year but entered Saturday making 21.6%. He finished Saturday with a team-high 18 points while shooting 4-of-4 from 3.

The teams continued trading leads throughout the first half’s remainder, entering halftime with 12 lead changes while the largest lead was the Seminoles leading 18-12. Starling scored just two more points the rest of the period, entering the locker room shooting 3-of-10 and 1-of-5 from 3. However, freshman Donnie Freeman percolated in the final three minutes, scoring six of his 16 points to help SU trail 36-34 at the break.

Though Freeman and Starling each scored out of the gates in the second half, Florida State jumped out to a 46-39 lead thanks to 3s from Taylor Bol Bowen and Justin Thomas. The Seminoles shot 7-of-18 from 3, while Syracuse was 10-of-25. The Orange last made more 3s than their opponent against Texas on Nov. 21, making five triples compared to the Longhorns’ four.

Thomas’ triple forced Autry to call a timeout. Syracuse struggled out of the break, as Carlos committed his second turnover, while playing a season-low 19 minutes, leading to a Malique Ewin — who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds — transition layup. However, a Kyle Cuffe Jr. triple cut SU’s deficit back down to 48-42 at the under-16 timeout. After playing 36 minutes against WF, Cuffe played 14 versus FSU and scored 10 points.

Over the next several minutes, another 2 from Cuffe and a pair of Bell triples cut the Orange’s deficit to 57-53 at the 11:59 mark. Despite the spark from SU’s reserves, it couldn’t build any momentum as the Seminoles embarked on an 11-2 run, sparking the game’s then-largest lead, 68-55, at the 8:26 mark.

“During the time when we needed to get those stops, we couldn’t get them,” Autry said.

Attempting to get back in the game, the Orange went on a 3-point barrage with Bell, Taylor and Freeman each canning triples. However, FSU leading scorer Jamir Watkins, who entered the contest averaging 19.5 points, responded with four of his 16 points giving it a 74-66 lead with five minutes remaining.

Needing a final push to get back in the game, Syracuse never got one. Instead, it was held without a field goal for nearly four minutes and was outscored 16-8 across the final five minutes. The win notched FSU’s first ACC win this season, while SU remained winless.

“I think we just have a lot of mental mistakes down the stretch that really kills us, and it just keeps compounding, and then teams are just capitalizing off that,” Starling said.

Published on January 4, 2025 at 8:24 pm

Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon