Syracuse suffered its fifth nonconference loss of the season on Wednesday night for the first time in program history. The Orange (7-5) lost, 93-60, to St. John’s (6-7) in the Carrier Dome. The loss was by far SU’s worst of the season. It had never trailed by more than 17 entering the game and Wednesday night was an absolute beat down as fans began heading to the exit with more than eight minutes remaining.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

Red Storm capitalizes on Syracuse’s turnovers

St. John’s scored 32 points on the Orange’s giveaways. The first 14 of those came off SU’s first seven turnovers.

Nine of the Red Storm’s points during a 12-0 run in the first half came off turnovers. After a Syracuse timeout, Taurean Thompson traveled. On St. John’s’ next possession, Richard Freudenberg hit a 3 to cap the run. From that point on, SJU outscored Syracuse by 47.

Andrew White was invisible

The fifth-year transfer scored two points in the loss. He attempted just six shots and two 3-pointers. He entered Wednesday with a double-digit scoring total in every game this season but didn’t come anywhere close to that against St. John’s.

The Red Storm began the game locking in on him, not giving him any space on the perimeter. He still struggled going toward the rim. He made a layup with 16:49 remaining in the contest and drew a foul but couldn’t convert from the line.

After SU beat Eastern Michigan by 48 on Monday night, White said he had to improve his shot selection. But instead of improving, he didn’t even have the looks to be better.

St. John’s roasting Syracuse on perimeter

The Red Storm finished 12-of-29 from behind the arc by finding the open holes in the 2-3 zone. On back-to-back plays in the first half, Richard Freudenberg splashed it in from the left corner, on Taurean Thompson’s side of the zone. Thompson, a freshman. has struggled on the defensive end at times this year, especially when playing the wing position rather than at center.

With 13 minutes left in the game, Bashir Ahmed hit an open 3 from the right corner. As St. John’s ran back on defense, Marcus LoVett held up three fingers with both hands. Minutes earlier, Shamorie Ponds hit an open 3 from the top of the key further extending St. John’s’ lead.

Syracuse entered the game with the seventh-best defensive 3-point percentage in the country, a ranking sure to drop after the Red Storm’s barrage from behind the arc.

Published on December 21, 2016 at 10:07 pm

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