There haven’t been many positives for Syracuse Men’s Basketball in the second half of the 2025-26 season. Since the calendar flipped to January, the Orange have been searching for answers on how to win games.
Saturday afternoon, Syracuse finally got one of those answers. A double-digit second-half comeback, capped off my a game-winning lay-up by guard Nate Kingz, brought Syracuse past SMU 79-78.
“We felt like this was an NCAA tournament opportunity for us,” SU Head Coach Adrian Autry said.
“We did all the things that we needed to do to win,” he added.
Some takeaways as Syracuse gets back-to-back wins for the first time in a month:
Kingz leads the way
When Syracuse called a timeout down by one with 13.7 seconds left and possession, there were a ton of options that the Orange could have turned to. Your star in Donnie Freeman? The hot hand of Kiyan Anthony? Or someone else?
“I went with Nate Kingz, … I was really confident that we would get a shot off if we could get him the ball,” Autry said.
It ended up being the perfect decision. Even with star SMU guard Boopie Miller switched onto him, Kingz perfectly maneuvered down the left lane and scored SU’s biggest bucket of the season. The guard finished with 13 points and continued a scoring hot stretch.
“When things don’t go his way, or our way, he keeps working,” Autry said on the resilience of his budding star.
Good from the charity stripe…bad from the paint
Free throws have been a struggle for Syracuse throughout the season. Throughout the game today, though, they saved the Orange. SU went 14 of 18 from the line (in a game where every point really did matter). It’s not like SMU didn’t keep pace, going 13-17 at the charity stripe. But at the end of the day, the free throws did make a difference for SU.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. For most of the game, SU trailed by double digits. And a large part of it was paint play. SMU was a merchant of scoring inside, outscoirng SU 30-12 in that area during the first half.
SMU’s 7’2 center Samet Yigitoglu played bully ball with the Orange, but then came the foul trouble.
“I thought we did a good job of trying to keep a body on him,” Autry said.
Yigitoglu spent much of the second half on the bench and eventually fouled out with three minutes left. Syracuse took advantage, and the number of points paints
Anthony and Betsey anchor the comeback
Against a zone, Syracuse needed shooters. The Orange got just that out of forward Tyler Betsey and guard Kiyan Anthony. Both players went scoreless in the first half, but erupted in the final 20.
Anthony brought tough defense to the court and scored 13 points on 5-9 shooting in the second half. He almost completely replaced JJ Starling, who played just three minutes in the second half.
“I thought Kiyan really gave us a huge boost,” Adrian Autry.
This comes just two games after Anthony was benched against Virginia Tech.
“I think the one thing about Kiyan is he’s resilient,” Autry said. “We just talked about how every game is a different game.”
Betsey also added eight points and added some other big plays. The forward grabbed five boards and was switched to guard Miller late.
“Tyler’s one of our better defenders.”
More big performances will be needed when Syracuse takes on #4 Duke on Monday. Autry knows it’s a tough test.
“It’s Duke,” Autry said with a smile when asked about playing the Blue Devils.
