The narrative has been beaten to death, so much so that Jim Boeheim has run dry of reasons why Syracuse has been abysmal away from home and far superior on the court named after him.

The one constant resurfacing from the 41st-year head coach’s mouth that he’s able to pinpoint is his four “first-year players” failing to mesh as expected. Whether Boeheim’s preseason expectations were fair or not, the foursome of Andrew White, Tyus Battle, Taurean Thompson and John Gillon have struggled to lift Syracuse from the crater it has spiraled into after a record-worst start.

With 10:23 left in Tuesday night’s game against Wake Forest and the Demon Deacons leading by eight, that narrative seemed to flip on its head. The crater would sink deeper and Syracuse would be one game closer to .500 with a team ranked in the Top 10 up next.

But sure enough, it was timely shots from each of those four — and the fifth, a player by the name of Tyler Lydon – that defied the trends of Syracuse allowing deficits to balloon late propelled SU (12-9, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) to an 81-76 win over Wake Forest (12-8, 3-5) in its first conference game decided by single digits. This win, even if it comes against a mediocre Demon Deacons team in the building that Syracuse has earned all it wins, is something the Orange can hang its hat on — for now at least.

“We’re growing as a team,” Battle said. “It was a great comeback.”

That growth, however small when all 40 minutes were done, certainly wasn’t evident in a first half that saw Wake Forest outrebound Syracuse by 10 and John Collins fall one rebound shy of a double-double with the visitors up three.

Before Tuesday, the last time there had been a second-half lead change in a Syracuse game was Dec. 17 against Georgetown. But this game wasn’t nearly like the others, as Gillon’s nifty lefty lay-in gave Syracuse a 34-32 lead in a precursor to what would be a back-and-forth, chaotic second half.

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First a Wake Forest eight-point lead. Then a Syracuse six-point lead. Then a 7-0 run capped off by a Mitchell Wilbekin 3-pointer that followed two Thompson missed free throws. Only three Syracuse games this season had been decided by single digits, the loss against Connecticut, the win against North Florida and the loss against Georgetown.

A fourth was about to be added, and the same team whose inexperience with the Syracuse way has plagued it finally rose to the challenge.

“Tyus making some plays when we needed it … Drew was steady the whole game, had a big scoring night … Taurean finishing those plays on the back end,” Gillon said. “All those put together didn’t put too much pressure on one person to make a play.”

Battle’s acrobatic and-1, followed by Thompson’s and-1 of his own gave Syracuse its biggest cushion of the night with 4:25 left.

With the game tied at 68, Syracuse swung the ball around like clockwork, so unlike the team that registered only eight assists three days prior in a blowout loss to Notre Dame. The play ended with a Gillon kickout to White, who drilled a 3-pointer in front of a now-raucous SU bench, before the often-subdued fifth-year senior clenched his left fist and let out a scream. For the final 1:23, Syracuse held on.

“I thought the last play that we made, everybody touched the ball,” Boeheim said. “It was just perfect ball movement.”

Nothing about this season has been perfect for Syracuse. Far from it, in fact.

This one wasn’t close to perfect either, but Syracuse found a way in its first close game of a daunting ACC slate. And with the way this season has been going, the Orange will take a win any way it can.

“We haven’t been in close game and when you get in one for the first time, it’s not always that easy,” Boeheim said. “They made really good plays, really good plays when they had do.”

Published on January 24, 2017 at 11:55 pm

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