PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — Tyler Lydon came out with the ball after a major scrum under the basket. Texas A&M’s Tonny Trocha-Morelos had missed two shots. A couple other tap-in attempts didn’t fall. Syracuse struggled to get possession. After several attempts and several misses, it was Lydon that had the ball.

“I thought our guys fought hard, but we missed a lot of layups around the basket,” Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said. “The advantage we had was on the inside and we weren’t able to take advantage of it.”

The Aggies outrebounded Syracuse 38-31 and had 17 offensive rebounds to Syracuse’s 11. But those offensive boards turned into just 16 points for Texas A&M in its 74-67 loss to Syracuse in the Battle 4 Atlantis finals on Friday afternoon at Imperial Arena.

Lydon once again led all rebounders, this time with eight. And Syracuse won despite it’s disadvantage down low.

“We were just fighting for our lives down there,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “They’re a big, strong, physical team and we were just trying to scrape it out somehow.” 

Boeheim acknowledged that his team will get outrebounded on most nights, but said Lydon helped keep the team afloat on Friday. The SU forward got the board with 53 seconds to play when Jalen Jones — who scored 23 points — missed a layup. It was a last-gasp attempt, and Syracuse’s possession all but ended the game.

Boeheim said on Thursday that he feared the length and strength of the Aggies. His fears were proven correct in the Battle 4 Atlantis title, but it didn’t matter in the game’s final score.

“They were very good,” Kennedy said. “You have to give Syracuse a lot of credit.”

Published on November 27, 2015 at 8:25 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3