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When Buddy Boeheim deflected a Northeastern pass and sent it bouncing toward the bench, Quincy Guerrier immediately pivoted and snuck toward the basket. Just under nine minutes remained in the second half when Buddy corralled the ball and picked out Kadary Richmond in transition. Syracuse, as it had for much of the game, trailed by one.

Richmond lofted the ball over the Huskies’ final defender, and Guerrier finished it with a dunk, regaining a late lead for the Orange. Constant shooting struggles continued to plague them throughout the game’s final minutes, but they held onto their lead for just long enough. 

SU (5-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) entered as 17.5-points favorites, but it barely scraped by against Northeastern (1-2), winning 62-56 and only taking a comfortable lead late in the second half. One game after setting the program record for made 3-pointers, the Orange sunk just two. They shot just 32% from the field, relying on Joe Girard III’s 21 points and Guerrier’s 18. And they nearly stumbled enough for Northeastern — who played most of the second half without their best player, Tyson Walker, who left with an injury — to pull off a nonconference upset.

“I think the danger of the game with Boston College, everybody thinks that we’re there,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Boston College just had an unbelievably bad game. We made shots early, and then they just couldn’t make anything. That game has no relationship to reality. That’s a game you just forget.”

In a season defined by constant readjustments due to COVID-19, Syracuse and Northeastern facing each other fit the formula perfectly. The Huskies weren’t on the first schedule version, or even the second that Peter Corasaniti crafted. 

The scramble led to Wednesday, with the Huskies trotting out of the visitor’s tunnel, stealing a behind-the-back dribble from Alan Griffin on the first possession and carving apart SU’s 2-3 zone. They relied on drive-and-kicks, often starting with Shaquille Walters and Walker and ending with a 3-pointer from Coleman Stucke, who had seven attempts in the opening half.

Girard said the Huskies tended to send two shooters to one side — “a pretty good strategy” that helped them go up 8-2 and then 11-7. They prevented a free fall toward the same result that Niagara, Rider and Boston College had by using quick ball movement that created space for wide-open shots. It’s what Syracuse did against BC, but the Huskies were now doing it to SU’s zone. 

Jim Boeheim said at halftime that Syracuse’s first-half performance was “inexcusable.” Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA Today Sports

That frustrated Boeheim to the point that he slammed his whiteboard on the floor during the under-8 media timeout in the first half. Jahmyl Telfort had sunk a wide-open 3-pointer, and Boeheim’s marker went flying. Fifteen seconds after the timeout, though, Telfort sunk another. 

Syracuse adjusted and made sure that its wings didn’t creep too far inside on drives and that the top of the zone forced those driving, like Walker, to the corner.

Through the Huskies’ two games, Walker averaged 24.5 points per game and drew 10.8 fouls, the clear focal point of their offense. Less than two minutes into the second half, though, Walker’s face collided with Girard’s leg, and Walker didn’t return to the floor. 

“It was just a big change,” Girard said. “They didn’t really have as much attacking in the lane as they probably would’ve liked, or had he been there.”

Walker’s absence created enough of an opportunity for the Orange to claw back after Northeastern pulled ahead by five a few possessions later. Until that point, their offense had been static. Buddy hit just 1-of-12 shots, and Griffin, leading the Orange at 18.3 points per game, went 0-for-4.

Syracuse could again run three-guard sets, using minutes from Richmond instead of Griffin to spark drives in the lane and disruptions on the press. After Walker left, Girard hit a pull-up jumper off a screen. Syracuse then hit five foul shots to keep pace with the Huskies, until Guerrier’s dunk gave the Orange their first lead since the 16:07 mark.

“I just know my role,” Guerrier said. “I’ve got to be aggressive, go to the rebound, help my teammates, and you know be a monster down there.” 

But Griffin’s struggles continued. His baseline turnover was followed by a miss on a wide open 3 after forcing a turnover in the press. With just under 15 minutes remaining in the second half, Griffin corralled a pass on the wing. He passed the ball back to Guerrier, who was looking to set a screen, to create movement, to do anything that might lead to a Syracuse basket. And Guerrier wasn’t there. Griffin subbed out soon after, and never returned.

Guerrier, Girard and Dolezaj played off each other, ultimately helping Syracuse avoid an upset. Boeheim said that Syracuse had to start driving and trying to draw fouls because the shots, the same ones they hit earlier in the season, weren’t falling. Twenty-two points, more than a third of what they scored, came from the foul line.

Defensive improvements on the ball, despite the open shots they created, helped mitigate those misses and turn the Huskies over 20 times. With under two minutes left, Girard stuck his arm out and deflected a Telfort pass up the court. He raced toward the ball with a Northeastern defender, beat it and drew an and-one at the other end, giving Syracuse a seven-point lead that, in the end, was enough. 

“We got a lot of work ahead of us,” Boeheim said. “We’re not anywhere near where we need to be.”

Through five games, the Orange’s identity with this group of 18 players had started to take shape. They were the group that could make 15 or 16 3-pointers in a game, firing catch-and-shoots, transition long-balls and anything that quick ball movement bought them. They were the group that could overcome an injury to a starting center, their best shot blocker, and still survive to the point that a win was in reach, like they did against Rutgers. 

All of that surfaced four days earlier and combined for a 38-point blowout against Boston College. It was supposed to surface once more against Northeastern, a nonconference opponent Syracuse blew out two years ago. 

But instead, Wednesday showed just how far Syracuse still has to go.

Published on December 16, 2020 at 5:26 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew