“It was too much” Syracuse’s comeback falls short in loss to No. 11 Virginia
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — If there was any sequence that best encapsulated why Syracuse lost against No. 11 Virginia — why it had to attempt a 23-point comeback in the first place — it came four minutes into the second half, the Orange down by 18.
Justin Taylor dribbled toward the corner, thinking there was space, or perhaps an open shot. But instead of finding space, Taylor found his way into a double team, and a turnover. His pass was deflected and stolen by Ben Vander Plas, the man who would make Taylor pay with an open 3 from the top of the arc on the other end of the court.
Turnovers — Syracuse had 16 Saturday — and wide-open Virginia 3s — the Cavaliers finished 12-of-26 from beyond the arc — were the predominant themes Saturday, and the causes of the Orange’s second conference loss. UVA led from start to finish, and despite a second-half SU (10-6, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) burst that got it within single digits, the Cavaliers (11-3, 3-2) won 73-66. Armaan Franklin’s hot 3-point shooting early helped him to 16 points, and three other Virginia players finished in double-digits, too. Judah Mintz and Joe Girard III combined for 37 points, but UVA’s defense and 3-point shooting proved too much.
“They got out to a great start shooting the ball,” head coach Jim Boeheim said postgame. “We battled back a little bit, but just made so many mistakes that we really haven’t been making.”
Syracuse has historically struggled against Virginia’s pack-line defense, and unsurprisingly, the results were the same in the first half Saturday. The Cavaliers suffocated drivers and big men, created turnovers in the backcourt and forced low-percentage perimeter shots. On one possession early in the first half, Syracuse was forced to set up its offense steps from the half-court line, and with the shot clock winding down, Mintz had to chuck up a contested jumper that missed.
Just like in their last six games, the Orange started slow, and faced a hefty deficit a few minutes after tip-off. UVA got out to a 13-5 lead behind three 3s from Franklin, and Syracuse turned the ball over three times before the first media timeout. Then, Reece Beekman hit a 3 from the wing, Jesse Edwards threw it away, and after eight minutes of basketball, Virginia led, 20-9.
It didn’t get much better from there, with Virginia’s first-half lead hitting 17, and Boeheim using his second timeout after a series of missed Syracuse shots and turnovers helped the Cavaliers go on a 7-0 run. UVA, which only gets 32% of its points from 3s this season (161st-highest nationally, per KenPom), got 60% in the first half Saturday, making seven 3s.
The Orange responded, though, ending the half on an 8-0 run behind two Mounir Hima blocks and four free throws to cut the deficit to nine. If at any point Saturday it looked like SU could keep up with UVA, it was during those two-plus minutes.
But that momentum couldn’t carry into the start of the second half, when Virginia used a 12-0 run to expand its lead further. It took the Orange over four minutes to get on the board again, and Boeheim used another timeout after Syracuse’s entire defense stood and watched as Jayden Gardner’s jumper hit the rim and bounced to the floor. Virginia scooped it up, and Kadin Shedrick got an easy two-handed dunk.
Those ongoing defensive rebounding struggles — SU ranks last in the ACC, by far, at securing opponents’ misses — have drawn Boeheim’s ire throughout the season, with the head coach usually pointing to his starting forwards, Chris Bell and Benny Williams, for not securing enough rebounds. Case in point: Bell finished with zero rebounds Saturday, his fourth straight game with less than five, and 15th time in 16 games.
Williams’ up-and-down season, meanwhile, took a night off Saturday, with the forward missing the game due to a stomach illness. The absence led to Maliq Brown, a native of the Charlottesville area, seeing increased minutes. John Bol Ajak started in place of Williams, but Boeheim wanted Brown to receive starters’ minutes — just wanting the forward to come off the bench like usual. Brown said he’s more confident coming off the bench since he’s already aware of his matchups.
Brown’s role has steadily grown over the past few weeks, and he showed why on Saturday. He played 36 minutes, becoming a key part of Syracuse’s offense with 10 points, and crashed the glass for eight boards. “He played really well,” Boeheim said of Brown.
Things started to pick up for the Orange, midway through the second half. Boeheim said Syracuse started moving better offensively, and guards got open shots as a result. First it was Mintz finding his shooting stroke, converting a layup off the glass, a contested midrange shot and a corner 3. Girard then hit a 3, making it a 12-point game with seven minutes left, and Syracuse turned to its full-court press to get even closer. Brown secured a steal, and Girard turned it into another three points, making it 64-56.
“We need those two guys to score,” Boeheim said of Mintz and Girard. “They kinda got us back a little bit, but it was too much. We weren’t gonna get back all the way.”
Virginia, meanwhile, had gone ice cold from beyond the arc, missing seven in a row at one point, and SU suddenly found itself in a ball game during its 13-0 run that began at the 4:50 mark.
“We played a really good 20 minutes of basketball,” UVA head coach Tony Bennett said. “And then in the second half, (we) got some shots, but defensively, they just got down.”
Syracuse’s press — something Brown said he wished the team would run against more teams — changed the pace and energy of the game.
“We had to give everything we got,” Brown said. “Just trying to bring as much energy as we could.”
But even that couldn’t make a difference — the hole was simply too big to overcome. A Beekman midrange shot and Shedrick layup within seconds of each other restored the lead to double-digits.
And when the clock hit all zeros, the Orange had officially run out of time. Despite outscoring a top-15 team in the second half, Syracuse still needed more. More time, more shots, more forced turnovers. It was the first 25 minutes that had cemented the outcome. Those last 15 mattered little, despite SU playing some of its best basketball of the season.
