“3 more! Half way there!”
I turned around to see Lawrence Moten walking into his post-game press conference at The Basketball Tournament. Boeheim’s Army had minutes earlier taken down the Liberty Ballers, and Moten was more than happy to let everyone know about it. He had quite the choir to preach to.
Syracuse fans had lined the outer edges of the conference room, and more waited outside. The stands at a game 700 miles from Syracuse campus were predominately Orange. They clapped until Boeheim’s Army scored in each half, and started “Let’s go Orange” chants during timeouts. I was shocked at the number of Orangemen and women who had come out to support. When I asked Moten if he was surprised by the turnout, he gave me the right answer.
“Not at all. We bleed Orange, my friend,” Moten said. “We’re one big family.”
“Being able to have that support and knowing that you’ve got people behind you is a motivating factor,” Eric Devendorf added. “We travel well, I think everywhere we go we have Syracuse fans.”
The fans were able to see a win on Friday. Boeheim’s Army led for the majority of the game, but the Liberty Ballers kept themselves within striking distance. In the end, it was clutch free throws by Hakim Warrick that clinched the win for the Army.
The team will play tomorrow night against “Team City of Gods”. With 5 former NBA players, City of Gods is considered the most experienced team in the tournament.
“Game by game we approach it the same way we approach any other team,” Devendorf said. “We know every team is highly competitive. We’re gonna go out there and play hard and play good defense, and hopefully we’ll get the win.”
You can watch Boeheim’s Army’s game tonight at 8 PM EDT on ESPNU.
Posted: Nathan Dickinson
