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After an outing where Syracuse allowed its most points all season against Duke on Jan. 2, the Orange responded by hindering one of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top offenses.

Syracuse (11-4, 2-2 ACC) themselves did not fair much better offensively over Boston College (10-5, 1-3 ACC) in a 69-59 win. The Orange almost blew its large lead in the second half while only shooting 37% on the night. As BC improved its shooting throughout the game, it took a one-point lead late in the second half.

But after an outing where SU allowed the most points all season, it responded by somewhat stopping BC. The Orange forced the Eagles to just 29.03% shooting in the first half, and didn’t allow opposing star center Quinten Post to score. Down the stretch, the Orange capitalized with pressure on BC’s few misses and cemented their second conference win of the season.

“I thought we had probably one of our better defensive games that we had in conference play this year,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said postgame.

Although eventually pulling out the win, Syracuse started the game with a unique lineup.

Ninety minutes before tipoff, SU Athletics announced on X that center Naheem McLeod was out indefinitely with a right foot injury. But the Orange made another surprising move before the game was underway, placing Judah Mintz on the bench to begin the contest.

After the game, Autry said Mintz was out of the starting lineup due to a violation of team rules, but said it is “OK” now and expects the point guard to be in the starting lineup against No. 7 North Carolina on Saturday, Jan. 13.

Mintz said he received the news in the late afternoon, early evening, but didn’t think it affected his game. He finished with 10 points on just 1-of-7 shooting from the field.

With a starting lineup of J.J. Starling, Quadir Copeland, Justin Taylor, Chris Bell and Maliq Brown, Syracuse started scoring the first eight points of the game and jumped out to a 14-7 lead over the Eagles early on.

But the Orange imposed their defense against a much improved Boston College offense. Although BC is averaging 14 more points per game than last season, SU registered 12 steals and five blocks in the first half alone. With Post and Brown fighting underneath the hoop early on, Autry said that there were “bodies flying everywhere.”

“We practice that way,” Autry said. “We’re a tough group. We may not always be sexy so to speak. But we fight.”

Chas Kelley III attempted to throw an inside pass to Post, but Brown stole the ball, causing a quick transition, leading to a Bell one-handed slam. Two possessions later, Post tried to work down low, but Brown knocked the ball away into the hands of Bell. This time, the forward scooped the ball and executed a windmill dunk to increase Syracuse’s lead to seven.

Bell showed a different skillset in the win over the Eagles that he hadn’t previously — he dominated in transition. Instead of simply pulling up for long jumpers in the corners, he put together three highlight reel dunks.

Mintz watched Bell from the scorer’s table as the forward completed his first two dunks. But even as Mintz started the game from the bench, he still found ways to contribute like Bell. Mintz nailed a 3-pointer while facing contact from Donald Hand Jr.

The Orange were up 10 points at halftime after limiting the Eagles to a season-low first half point total of 22.

Over a five and a half minute stretch in the second half, BC went on a 16-8 run, capitalized by a 3-pointer from the left wing by Claudell Harris Jr. The offensive run for Boston College would only continue throughout the second half. With over 11 minutes to go, Mason Madsen hit a 3-point shot from the right wing, cutting the deficit to six.

SU’s offense continued to struggle even as Copeland fought his way in for contested layups throughout the second half. The Orange would finish 38.71% from the field in the final period.

All of a sudden, the Eagles were down just four points after a Kelley layup. With just under nine minutes to go, BC had shot 50% in the half. And after a no-call that caused uproar from the SU bench, Mason hit another 3-pointer and it was a one-point game. Autry was now forced to call a timeout.

As the Eagles rushed up the floor, Prince Aligbe completed the comeback with a layup — giving BC its first lead of the game.

But Bell put the Orange right back in the lead with a 3-pointer. Brown followed with a layup and Syracuse was right back to a four-point lead. Just over a minute later, Brown threw home a dunk before Mintz nailed two free throws to again make it a four-point lead after BC quickly eliminated its deficit in that minute.

The Orange then established a six-point lead after Brown and Mintz attacked the basket, drew fouls and made both of their free throws to make the score 65-59 as Post fouled out after Mintz drew contact.

With McLeod out, Brown was the man who took responsibility in guarding a center that Autry called one of the ACC’s best players. Autry said limiting Post to no points was the difference in the game. Brown, who leads the team in fouls per game, finished the day with just two, an impressive feat considering he logged the most minutes among any player.

“He did a good job of not getting fouls,” Autry said of Brown. “I thought he moved his feet. I thought he was physical. I thought he was quicker.”

The lead only grew after Brown kicked out to Bell off a rebound, and Bell contorted his body to nail a long 2-pointer as the shot clock expired. On the other end, Brown tallied another block and one more steal to secure Syracuse its second conference win of the season.

With their conference record now at 2-2, the Orange took the eight-day rest period and displayed a defensive performance that pleased their head coach. Autry said with the rest there would be rust, but he would rather prefer his offense to be rusty than his defense. But Taylor added that the two aren’t really mutually exclusive.

“It’s about being more locked in defensively (for) the whole 40 minutes,” Taylor said. “And if we do that, I think offense can take care of itself.”

Published on January 10, 2024 at 11:31 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com