Observations from SU’s 80-68 win over Georgetown: Starling’s season-high, swarming defense
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WASHINGTON — Once-Big East rivals Syracuse and Georgetown met for the 99th all-time matchup at Capital One Arena (Washington D.C) on Saturday.
The Orange entered off of a 81-70 win over Cornell, led by Judah Mintz’s 28 points and career-high five 3-point field goals. Forwards Chris Bell and Justin Taylor added 19 and 15, respectively, to fuel the victory.
SU obtained a win Saturday to extend its lead in the head-to-head series to 54-and-35. Mintz notched his sixth 20-plus point outing and finished with a game-high 25. J.J. Starling recorded a season-best 21 and Quadir Copeland recorded a career-high 14.
In what was a tight game throughout the opening 20 minutes quickly led to Syracuse taking a commanding lead during the final stretch.
Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (7-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) 80-68 win over Georgetown (5-4, 0-0 Big East):
Stopping Epps
Jayden Epps’ first seven points were quick. He beat Mintz on a straight-line drive down the right sideline. Then, a floater over Naheem McLeod followed by a pull-up 3 over Mintz’s outstretched hand.
Syracuse had to adapt quickly. Mintz began to hound Epps in a low-crouching defensive stance. He fought over screens and a series of curl-action sets drawn up for the Hoyas’ point guard.
He and Maliq Brown trapped Epps near mid-court, forcing his first turnover. Bell picked up the loose ball and fired ahead to Mintz in transition, who converted on a right-hand layup.
But Epps’ scoring drought was brief. At around the 10 minute mark, he lost Copeland with a series of crossovers before attempting a high-arcing floater over Benny Williams to bring Georgetown within three, 22-19. He also produced a team-high four assists at the break, including a pinpoint feed to Hoyas center, Supreme Cook, for an emphatic dunk.
The Mintz, Brown trap emerged again early in the second half. Pouncing quickly on Epps near the left sideline, Brown forced a turnover and went untouched on the other end for an easy, two-handed flush.
Epps never really found his rhythm past the opening four minutes of the game. And without his presence, Georgetown’s ability to score sputtered and faltered.
Benny and Mounir see time
Williams checked into the game with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half. He did not play in Syracuse’s last contest — an 81-70 win over Cornell. Mounir Hima entered at the 1:50 mark.
Across the Orange’s opening nine games, Williams has been suspended twice due to a violation of team rules. He did see the floor for SU’s matchup with then-No. 7 Tennessee in the Allstate Maui Invitational, and mostly saw garbage-time minutes in the team’s 80-57 victory over LSU on Nov. 28.
For Hima, who averaged a little over seven minutes a game last season, he’s played in just one game — Syracuse’s 76-57 defeat to Gonzaga on Nov. 21.
Williams, a Bowie, Maryland, native, struggled early. He didn’t get many touches and missed his first shot attempt — a tough look through traffic, deep in the paint. For most of the first half, however, Williams remained on the bench.
Hima, meanwhile, saw immediate success. In his first offensive possession Saturday, Hima tipped an offensive rebound to Starling for a layup along the right baseline. The next trip down, he put back a Taylor miss for his first points of the season, 30 seconds before the break.
At one point, with 11 minutes remaining in the game, both players saw action at the same time. While Williams didn’t score, Hima finished with four.
Mintz’s bright homecoming
By the end of the opening half, Mintz had tallied a game-high 12 points. He got to the basket through a barrage of methods. He drew contact and hit his free throws.
In the early going, Mintz had no problem getting to his spots. And defensively, tasked to cover the dynamic Epps, SU’s point guard held his own. Though Mintz ended the first 20 minutes with an air-ball and a couple of contested misfires, his imprint on the game unmistakably helped give Syracuse a 35-34 advantage at halftime.
Mintz converted his ninth and 10th free throws two minutes into the second half. Two possessions later, he picked Epps’ pocket for an uncontested lay-in.
When met by Georgetown’s backup guard Rowan Brumbaugh, Mintz almost always looked to attack. Utilizing a Brown screen, he took Brumbaugh deep into the paint before drawing a foul — his defender’s fourth of the game.
Despite recording his sixth 20-plus outing this season, Mintz was relatively quiet for the majority of the second half. Then, he picked Epps’ pocket again for his fourth steal and a thunderous jam.
J.J. Starling finds his stroke
Amid an exuberant Syracuse bench, Starling flashed three fingers by his side in a brief moment of self-congratulations. Against Georgetown, he shot a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc.
Playing with his usual sense of discipline and reliability, Starling consistently made the correct passes and played suffocating defense on the Hoyas’ Jay Heath. But offensively, the SU shooting guard seemed to find a new drive en route to a season-high 21 points.
However, Starling has hit big shots before. When Syracuse led Cornell 71-68 with just three minutes to play, a pull-up jumper near the free-throw line fueled the Orange to a dominant scoring stretch to secure the victory.
His highlight Saturday arrived on a right-wing jumper. When the SU offense stood stagnant, Starling shifted and shimmied to lose his defender and drain an open shot. And on Syracuse’s final offensive play of the contest, another purposeful drive resulted in an and-one opportunity. He finished with a season-high 21 points.
