WASHINGTON — The second time his shot fell, Tyus Battle held his right arm out a little longer than he did for the first. It was only a second or two difference, but he had to savor this: Syracuse. Georgetown. Patrick Ewing. Near-full arena in the nation’s capital. First-half offensive woes erased, the Syracuse fans clad in orange and sprayed across the upper deck stood from their seats to create a collective frenzy. The rest of the facility fell into a hush.

“I was looking for a little bit of space,” said Battle, who finished with a game-high 29 points. “Great feeling.”

Battle’s second straight 3-pointer from the right wing gave Syracuse a reprieve, however brief, in the form of a four-point lead. Battle and Syracuse wanted a road win that eluded the program much of last year, and it was a large factor for why the Orange missed out on the Big Dance. But Battle delivered back-to-back 3-pointers to lead the Orange (9-1) to a thrilling, 86-79, overtime victory over former Big East rival Georgetown (8-1) on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena. The sophomore guard shot 6-for-11 from deep across 45 minutes on the floor.

Held quiet for much of the second half, Battle had only begun to create again for Syracuse after Oshae Brissett lifted SU out of lethargy. Battle entered the game as the second-leading scorer in the Atlantic Coast Conference, having failed to score 10 points only once through nine games. When Brissett clicked, so did Syracuse’s offense. Brissett had only one point on 0-for-3 shooting at the half. Then, he and SU’s full-court pressure lifted Syracuse out of monotony. Out of one-dimensionality. Out of desperation.

“It was not looking too good there for a while,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Sometimes, you can go for your press and just hope. That was one of those days.”

SU’s full-court pressure generated a bevy of Hoyas turnovers, many of which produced layups and transition 3s for Syracuse. Georgetown switched to a 2-3 zone, which opened up Syracuse shooters. Taken together, these elements powered Syracuse over the Hoyas. A year after the Hoyas spoiled Pearl Washington Day in the Carrier Dome with a 78-71 win, the Orange racked up its ninth win of the season in Georgetown’s house.

Down 10 much of the early part of the second half, Syracuse needed life. Anything to put aside an anemic first half in which SU found hardly any offense, save for Battle and point guard Frank Howard. Enter Brissett, Syracuse’s lone true freshman starter. Syracuse scored 62 points in the second half and overtime behind Brissett and the two starting guards. Brissett finished with a career-high 25 points, along with Howard’s 19.

That Syracuse cobbled together points only in bunches, primarily from three players, could be symptomatic of the Orange’s one-dimensionality on offense this season. Matched against a team of comparable size, Syracuse could not resort to easy buckets down low when it needed them. Syracuse’s bigs, depleted, outmatched and burdened with foul trouble, could not create. Paschal Chukwu fouled out. Bourama Sidibe, facing a nagging injury, did not score and picked up four fouls in 11 minutes. Marek Dolezaj played through four fouls.

“We need those guys,” Boeheim said.

The turning point came when the Orange swapped to its full-court pressure midway through the second half. With it came mixed results: easy Hoyas layups at times. Other times, Syracuse generated turnovers.

With one minute left, Howard poked the ball out and scored a layup to tie the game. He said that Georgetown junior center Jessie Govan was popping out far, which elevated SU’s bigs. To protect Chukwu under the basket, Howard said he decided to go all in. He came up with the steal and beat Jagan Mosely to the basket to tie the game at 69.

“My jumper wasn’t falling today. I had to affect the game somehow,” said Howard, who committed seven turnovers. “The last two games, I was playing on my heels too much. Not being assertive. I wanted to pressure him, be stronger with the ball and control the pace.”

On SU’s next possession, the Orange missed out on several chances to win. A Battle fadeaway from the top of the key. A Howard jumper. A Brissett blocked layup. It set up a five-minute overtime period, during which Battle opened up play with a 3 from the right wing. Then he hit his second 3 from the same spot and held his follow through as he glided back on defense.

On Syracuse’s next possession in overtime, Howard sifted into the lane and floated an alley-oop to Paschal Chukwu. Howard said he had heard Hoyas head coach and former All-American big man Patrick Ewing tell Govan to creep up a bit. That opened up a crevice for him to lob a pass to Chukwu, who dunked the ball.

“It’s a game that we should have won,” Ewing said. “When you’re up double figures, especially coming down the stretch, you can’t make the mistakes that we made.”

Then Battle, who scored a game-high 29 points, found his groove. Redshirt freshman forward Matthew Moyer had 11 rebounds and Brissett had a game-high 14 boards on an afternoon that came ahead of SU’s final four remaining nonconference games. The Orange is predicted to win each of them, according to Kenpom.com, which would put SU at 13-1 heading into ACC play.

By the end of the frenzy Saturday afternoon, with 8.2 seconds locked on the clock and Howard at the free throw line, Georgetown fans filed for the exits. A Syracuse chant commanded the arena. Howard pointed to his own heart. Moyer threw his hands up toward a Syracuse contingent in the upper deck. The Orange once lifeless, had ridden a comeback effort to storm back and topple its former rival.

Published on December 16, 2017 at 3:13 pm

Contact Matthew: [email protected] | @MatthewGut21