Andrew White knew he had to change up his strategy. After receiving a face-guard from St. John’s’ Malik Ellison, White’s inklings of needing to diversify his offensive game surfaced once again. He couldn’t rely so much on 3-pointers if he hoped to be successful going forward.

Against Cornell on Tuesday, White charged toward the basket more often and scored at the rim. The fifth-year graduate transfer is still adjusting to Syracuse and 13 games into the season, how he’s scoring is undergoing a bit of a change.

“I’d like to get to the hole a little bit more,” White said. “… I’m going to try and take some of the stuff that I used last year, kind of mold that into my game so that I can be a little bit more well-rounded.”

Following White’s worst game of the season, a two-point performance against St. John’s on Dec. 21, the changes had to happen. He successfully attacked the basket on six occasions against the Big Red and racked up 12 points. The game provided a glimpse at what he can do even when he goes scoreless from deep and it’s a transformation that SU (8-5) may continue relying on when Atlantic Coast Conference play begins on Sunday at noon at Boston College (7-6).

In a six-game stretch prior to the St. John’s game, 25 of White’s 31 converted field goals were 3-pointers. He mostly either spotted up at the 3-point line waiting for a pass or curled around a screen designed to get him open. It resulted in a similar, even predictable, catch-and-shoot rhythm.

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The strategy worked for the ACC’s leader in 3-pointers made (39) this season, until Ellison shut White down in his first game scoring fewer than 10 points this year. It was the first time since high school that White faced a box-and-one defense, he said, and without being a dangerous threat to dribble, St. John’s went all in on locking him down to defend the 3-pointer. Paired with a Syracuse offense that ranks 126th in the country with 76.7 points per game, shutting down SU’s leading scorer is a strategy that opponents could likely employ again.

“Teams are going to deny him as much as they can,” Orange head coach Jim Boeheim said.

While White has gone 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the past two games, he scored in different ways in Syracuse’s last nonconference game against Cornell.

Twice in the first half, White split two defenders in the lane on his way to the basket for an easy layup in transition. Four minutes into the second half, he grabbed an offensive rebound and made both free throws after he got fouled on the putback attempt. A minute later, he stole the ball, went coast-to-coast, drew a foul and again hit both free throws. Thirty seconds after that, he cut along the baseline, caught a pass inside from Taurean Thompson and smoothly finished.

His makes surrounded the basket as he went 3-for-5 on 2-point field goals. His six made free throws against Cornell were a season-high, an indication that he was getting inside well enough to draw fouls.

“When you’re a good shooter you’ll have to take a few tough shots,” point guard Frank Howard said, “but you don’t want every shot to be that tough.”

White said he wants to get back to being a threat from several places on the court, like he was last year. At Nebraska last season, 44.6 percent of White’s field goals came via 3-pointers, compared to 63.9 percent this season. But as a result of improved point guard play getting him the ball in open spots, White said he hadn’t had to find other ways to score. Until recently.

“I try to look at the shots, look at my form, look at my technique,” White said, “and figure out what I could have done to correct that shot and what else was going on around it.”

Amid his current shooting slump, the answer for White is attacking the basket.

Published on December 29, 2016 at 8:53 pm

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