Syracuse made a hard charge at it, but couldn’t come all the way back. The Orange didn’t lead much in the game, and fell behind by double digits in the middle of the second half before turning on the defensive intensity and making a bit of a run. Even then however, the Orange couldn’t cut it any closer than 7 until there was less than a minute to play.
On the offensive end, Michael Gbinije was leading the way through about 30 scoring 20 in that time, but he struggled down the stretch, and finished with 21 and picking up 5 fouls in about the final 10 minutes. Tyler Roberson had a rough game, shooting just 3-9 from the field and 1-8 from the free throw line.
The SU 3-point shooting wasn’t up to par either for the Orange. Trevor Cooney went 1-8, and Malachi Richardson finished 0-11 from beyond the arc.
What it comes down to is that when the Orange shoot well, they can beat anyone in the country—and look like a ranked team. But when they shoot poorly, the Orange can lose to anyone in the country—take St. John’s for example. The Red Storm isn’t really that good a team, still going through a transition after losing a number of players from last year’s team. But on Sunday, the Red Storm hit 49% of their shots and 50% from beyond the 3-point arc. St. John’s was red hot.
There is no other way to look at today other than a bad loss for the Orange. A game that come tourney time, if they are on the bubble, will likely be considered a bad loss.
Syracuse just looked out played for much of the game. And when they finally turned it on and got a couple turnovers, the Orange couldn’t convert them into points. It was a rough return to the Garden for Syracuse, dropping it to St. John’s 84-72.
Posted By: Seth Goldberg
