Syracuse dug itself in a hole right off the bat, but climbed out in the second half to win 77-69 over Notre Dame in the Dome Saturday evening. JJ Starling finished with a team-high 21 points. Eddie Lampkin and Kyle Cuffe Jr. ended up with 13 points apiece. The Orange have won three of their last four games.
FIRST HALF
Notre Dame began the game on an 11-0 run. The first bucket of the game for Syracuse didn’t come until less than 16 minutes left in the opening half thanks to a three-pointer from forward Jyare Davis.
The Orange were slow, the ball movement was subpar, and there was definitely no inside presence for SU in the first half of the game.
First off, the lack of big presence in the paint stood out in the first half. Eddie Lampkin wasn’t effective in the opening frame. The Orange did use him a lot more in the second frame. Syracuse had two points in the paint out of 11 points in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Markus Burton killed the Orange in the first half of the game with 22 points. Notre Dame couldn’t miss, but the Irish finally cooled off because they didn’t register a bucket in the final five minutes of the first half.
Syracuse took advantage of that and cut the deficit to single digits at halftime. Elijah Moore ended up with six first half points with some key buckets at the end of the opening frame to keep SU in the game.
SECOND HALF
The Orange came out firing to begin the second half and began where they left off in the first half. SU notched a consecutive streak of four made buckets, but the Fighting Irish leveled things off a bit.
Lampkin’s energy in the second half was contagious, and he was extremely effective for SU’s ability to push the pace with his passing and an assist to Jyare Davis for an and-one layup a few minutes into the second. Both transfers had four points each near the middle part of the second half.
Starling got going in the second half with 13 of his 21 points in the ballgame. The Baldwinsville native hit a couple of important three-pointers and showed his wizardry when driving inside. Lampkin ended up with 10 second half points.
Syracuse could’ve very well folded, but the Orange made it competitive after the opening 10 minutes of the game.
SU took its first lead of the game with less than four minutes left with a Lampkin putback basket, and-one opportunity.
The Orange went 0-for-5 in the final stretch of the game, but held on to win 77-69 over the Fighting Irish.
Starling recorded 16 second half points. Lampkin and Cuffe ended up with 10 points apiece. Incredible team effort by Syracuse in the back half of the game to erase a 17-point deficit from the Fighting Irish.
Syracuse travels to Clemson on Wednesday for a 7:00 P.M. tip-off.
