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When Jamorko Pickett and Jahvon Blair made back-to-back baskets to cut Georgetown’s deficit from 12 points to seven, head coach Jim Boeheim called a timeout and immediately began shouting at Alan Griffin. 

The transfer forward struggled with his defensive positioning in the 2-3 zone and left Blair open for the 3, Boeheim said. Griffin had tried to dribble through traffic, nearly losing the ball multiple times, Boeheim added postgame. With 12 minutes remaining, the head coach signaled for Robert Braswell to replace Griffin.

Days earlier, Syracuse squandered a 16-point lead against Pittsburgh with 11 minutes to play and lost by three, damaging both its conference record and NCAA Tournament resume. In its final nonconference game of the year, against a struggling Georgetown team, the Orange couldn’t afford to collapse again. But the offense — much maligned after Wednesday — was missing open shots and turning the ball over. The Orange teetered. Marek Dolezaj took an elbow to the face and had lost part of his tooth. An Orange turnover nearly pushed the Hoyas within two. 

“We’ve been here before, we can’t let this happen again,” Buddy Boeheim said of the team’s mindset. “We’ve been in a lot of close games this year, and the one we lost, we had the biggest lead in.”

The 96th meeting between the two longtime rivals on Saturday was unlike any other, in part due to the lack of fans. Boeheim wore a white towel draped over his shoulder during pregame warmups, a trademark for late friend and longtime rival John Thompson. Once the ball tipped off, there were no cheers. No boos. No Thompson. 

While Georgetown mounted its comeback, most of the Orange’s issues came on defense. Open 3-point shooters, failures on the defensive glass down the stretch and turnovers nearly dealt Syracuse another crushing blow. But timely offense enabled the Orange (7-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) to hold off Georgetown (3-8, 1-5 Big East) 74-69 in a renewal of the historic rivalry. 

“It’s tough to have a rivalry game with no fans, you don’t really feel it,” Buddy said. “You can feel the intensity in the other game (with fans). It kind of just felt like another game, and we knew we had to win that one and bounce back after a tough loss the other night.”

Syracuse’s issues containing the Hoyas began in the opening stages, as Georgetown scored multiple easy buckets. Forwards Qudus Wahab and Pickett operated in the high-low spots in the paint, dragging Dolezaj up and then finding Wahab underneath. Griffin failed to provide the support to rotate down, resulting in easy dunks. 

The Orange then lost sight of Donald Carey, who hit a wide open rhythm 3 to put the Hoyas up five early. The same defensive issues that hurt Syracuse when the Hoyas’ offense steamrolled them in Washington, D.C. last December resumed, even with an almost entirely new lineup for GU. 

Boeheim shouted at both Dolezaj and Griffin multiple times in the game’s opening minutes, as both were caught out of position to start the game. The Orange adjusted by pinching their guards in more to take away the high post. On offense, Joe Girard III took a long, contested 3 that clanked off the front rim.

Boeheim pulled Girard from the game after that long 3, opting to go to Kadary Richmond. But when Girard returned to the game in the waning stages of the half, his all-around passing and improved shooting helped power a 12-0 Syracuse run. He finished with 18 points and eight assists on 6-0f-11 shooting. 

“Joe’s going to be just fine,” Buddy said. “He shot it great tonight, hit some big 3s, helped us win, made great plays.”

Joe Girard III had 18 points in Syracuse’s win over Georgetown in the Carrier Dome. Courtesy of Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

Syracuse went into the half up 13, a very similar position to Wednesday. For most of the half, it appeared that they’d kept the Hoyas at arm’s reach. But just like the Panthers on Wednesday, the Hoyas kept pushing and eventually started making the open looks Syracuse conceded. 

Turnovers maligned the Hoyas’ offense to start the second half, but the Orange’s own offensive issues prevented SU from building a more substantial lead. 

“We started the second half, we got four good shots in a row and didn’t get any of them to go down,” Boeheim said. “Then we missed two or three layups around the basket … You can’t do that, you gotta keep making them.”

Boeheim tried defensive adjustments to counteract the Hoyas’ hot shooting streak. When they hit a 3 from the wing, he instructed Braswell and Quincy Guerrier to play higher up on the wings to take away that shot. But on the next possession down the floor, the Hoyas worked to create an open 3 look from the corner that Braswell just forfeited. 

The Orange couldn’t just hold the Hoyas off the scoreboard — they’d need points of their own. They’d need their offense, which couldn’t get open looks against Pitt down the stretch, to produce. 

After Guerrier missed an easy chance to push the lead back to six, the Hoyas ran out in transition, with numbers to nearly erase the Orange’s deficit and cut it to two. Braswell came across and blocked the shot, gathered the rebound and led the charge back down the other end.

Buddy — who entered Saturday’s game shooting 24% from 3 — waited on the right wing with his feet set. His make turned a four-point lead into seven. The Orange navigated their way through the Hoyas’ press up five a possession later and Buddy tossed a lob to Griffin, which he dunked.

Syracuse had come close to handing away a second game this week. But once Girard hit a two from the top of the key to push the Orange’s lead to seven with 1:15 left, it was effectively the dagger.

Unlike Wednesday, there would be no collapse.

“We’ve had five games come down to the wire. We’ve made plays to win four of them,” Boeheim said. “So, you know, that’s a pretty good percentage.”

Published on January 9, 2021 at 9:30 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo