Syracuse squanders early lead, loses 73-56 to No. 7 Tennessee
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Adrian Autry is no longer an undefeated head coach, and Tennessee’s Zakai Zegler made sure to end it.
As J.J. Starling stood from the right side of the 3-point arc, Zeigler caused Starling to cough up the ball and run all the way back for a layup. The steal made the score 67-56 as the Volunteers took control.
Syracuse (3-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) still had a chance to knock off No. 7 Tennessee (4-0, 0-0 Southeastern Conference), hanging around all game in a sloppy affair. But the Orange went cold from beyond the arc, going 2-of-14 on 3s after making five of their first six, and recorded 15 turnovers in a 73-56 loss.
The biggest mistake, however, might be related to coaching as star point guard Judah Mintz sat out the last 13:28 of the first half. In that span, the Volunteers couldn’t come back against SU’s backups and capitalize on more mistakes.
There was hope for the Orange, but the young team still needs to limit errors.
“I feel like we could be one of the top teams in the country once we lock in and focus,” forward Chris Bell said. “If we can do that for 40 minutes, it’s going to be tough to beat us.”
The opening game of the Allstate Maui Invitational started as an ugly affair, with both teams combining for seven turnovers and the Volunteers committing four personal fouls in the first five minutes of the game.
On the Orange’s first possession, Mintz worked at the top but then threw an errant pass to Bell on the left side. Minutes later, Mintz tried to capitalize off a Tennessee miss, lobbing the ball to Naheem McLeod. But the pass hit the hoop instead.
Still, Syracuse had success and stuck with ranked Tennessee through success from the 3-point line, especially in the first half.
After a missed Volunteer 3-point attempt, Starling drove down the right side before slinging a pass under the hoop to Bell. The forward lined up for a 3-pointer from the left corner, making the shot and drawing the foul.
Bell’s 3-pointer was the Orange’s first field goal of the morning. He was an early spark and finished the game with 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting.
But Bell wasn’t the only one to keep the Orange alive early on.
With 13:50 minutes left in the half, the recently suspended Benny Williams came into the game for Justin Taylor. On his first shot, Williams nailed a contested jumper to give the Orange a 10-9 lead. Then following a Zakai Zeigler miss, Williams made a 3-pointer to increase the lead to four points.
While Willliams’ substitution could have been part of an upset-effort, it was another substitution from Autry that raised questions. At the 13:28 mark, Mintz got subbed out for backup guard Kyle Cuffe Jr.
At this point, Mintz had two personal fouls. The first happened on a reach-in foul two and a half minutes into the game, while the second came when he barged into Zeigler at the top of the key. Even though Mintz had just two fouls, he curiously never came back in for the rest of the half.
Autry was not asked about not playing Mintz for the majority of the first half, but the Volunteers certainly let him pay for the decision.
As the Volunteers went on a 19-6 run to end the half, substitutions like Quadir Copeland and Cuffe Jr. started to pile up on mistakes. After Copeland threw an errant pass to Starling, leading to a backcourt violation, Autry squinted in disappointment on the sidelines. The Orange finished with eight turnovers through the first 20 minutes.
Once Mintz returned after halftime, the mistakes persisted. Jahmai Mashack snatched the ball from Starling on SU’s first possession before Josiah-Jordan James nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 33-25. On the next possession, the referees called Starling with the moving screen foul. Off of that mistake, Jonas Aidoo dunked the ball and drew foul off contact from McLeod. He then made the shot from the charity stripe as the Volunteers were up by double digits for the first time in the game.
They also had a plan in stopping Mintz.
“It was getting up to the ball screens for me,” Aidoo said of guarding Mintz. “We know he pumped back a lot to get to the free throw line so it was (about) staying disciplined on that part.”
After Bell missed a semi-open jumper, Starling finally scored the Orange’s first field goal in over seven and a half minutes off a contested layup. As the Volunteers’ leading scorer — Dalton Knecht — went out for eight minutes, Mintz came back into the contest and exerted his dominance to keep his team alive.
Over a nearly six-minute run starting from the nine minute mark in the second half, Mintz scored SU’s next 13 points. On one play, Mintz caught a pass at the middle of the post, spun around, drew a foul and made the shot to bring Tennessee’s lead to just four. Mintz leaned into his strengths by drawing fouls and also making a slick cross court pass to Bell on the fastbreak. Bell made the dunk to make the score 61-56.
On the other end, SU forced more turnovers from the Volunteers, who finished with 16 giveaways. Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes described Syracuse as aggressive when it came to getting into passing lanes and tipping the ball away. He also added that he doesn’t remember a game where his team accidentally stepped out of bounds four times.
While Mintz had a made 3-pointer and jumper in between Tennessee possessions, the Vols drew more fouls, forcing players like Brown into foul trouble. The Volunteers also got alley oops to forwards like Aidoo, who thunderously slammed the ball over McLeod to add to their 12-0 run to end the game.
“When you get down five or seven with about a minute or two, you kind of push a little bit and you rush your shots,” Autry said. “I thought that’s what happened and that’s normal. But you just got to have composure until the end and we will.”
