Thank you, Brandon, for waking up after halftime
In what was highly-touted as Syracuse's first "true road game" of the season (well, except that... well, nevermind), the Orange rolled into the Prudential Center and was able to hold on and beat the Seton Hall Pirates 61-56. Nothing about this game was good, per se, other than the outcome. In honor of this game being played in Newark, I will shower this recap with bullets (note, I thought of that line before I heard of the senseless BS actions in Arizona this morning. Shooting people is not cool. We do not condone such, nor do we mean any disrespect to the victims of the Tucson tragedy. However, Newark, screw you.)
- You would have thought a week off would have done this team some good. Instead, they looked very rusty, very tired, almost as if they were jetlagged.
- Syracuse managed only 20 first-half points. Not to be outdone, Seton Hall put up 19.
- Seton Hall did what every other team facing the 2-3 zone does: chuck up 3s. They hit none in the first half. None. They eventually finished the game 3 of 26 for an astounding 11.5%, which I believe is the unemployment rate for Newark.
- Syracuse went 6 of 17 from long-range for 35.3%, which I suppose is acceptable. However, as you could guess, Syracuse was pitiful in that department in the first half.
- Overall, Syracuse shot 19 of 43 for 44.2% compared to the Pirates' 21 of 67 for 31.3%. Ouch, SHU. Ouch.
- Both teams seemed to be stymied by the defense they saw. Seton Hall tried to figure out the 2-3 zone, while on defense they showed their own 2-3 zone while at times switching to man. Syracuse couldn't keep up with what they saw.
- The leading scorers for Syracuse were Kris Joseph and Brandon Triche, each putting up 15 today.
- Brandon Triche sparked the Orange at the beginning of the second half, hitting a few threes (some from quite long-range). Though the Cuse would eventually let those gains slip away courtesy of a later SHU run, it was great to see Brandon get out there and shoot with some confidence. Syracuse can be a dangerous team if he's playing well.
- Fab Melo logged 11 minutes in this one. Most of them felt like they came in the second half. While I understand the need for him to get playing time and game experience, I'm really failing to see his contribution on the floor. He was 1 of 2 from the floor with a rebound and two turnovers. I guess it's the "intangibles"?
- BMK and Southie each had 14 minutes off the bench, Dion Waiters 10, and CJ Fair 8. Rather deep for a Boeheim bench. Total offensive output: 8 points.
- While Rick Jackson pulled down a team-high 14 rebounds, Syracuse got beat in this department 43-30. That can't happen against teams that shoot better than 31%.
- Speaking of rebounds, let's give credit where credit is due. Herb Pope had 20 rebounds for Seton Hall which, to go along with his 14 points, gave him a nice double-double for the afternoon. Much of his playing time was with four fouls. I marked down 12:08 as the time he left the game with four fouls, because TV told me to.
- The team that shot 84.6% at the free-throw line lost to the team that shot 47.2% at the free throw line. Yuck. Somebody needs to watch Boeheim on Basketball on the plane home.
- Several times I heard through the TV broadcast pretty loud cheers of "Let's Go Orange!" Good job out there, fans! Let's not give Syracuse a "true road game" all year!
- I couldn't watch this game live, so I set the DVR, and even recorded 5 minutes over, just in case. It still wasn't enough. I missed the final 15 seconds of gameplay. Twitter told me we won. Thanks, guys.
- Up next? A good, gutsy St. John's team on Wednesday night. Where? Madison Square Garden. You know the next line.
Labels: Big East, Syracuse Basketball
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