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By the time the ball reached Robert Braswell’s hands on the left wing, Syracuse’s bench had already stood in anticipation. Buddy Boeheim thrust both his arms up. John Bol Ajak jumped from his seat onto the sidelines. A pass from the corner had reached the Orange’s most efficient shooter — currently in the game only because of foul trouble, quarantines and injuries — and he rose from beyond the arc with no Pittsburgh defender nearby.

In the past two minutes, Braswell had already sunk two 3-pointers on the Orange’s last two possessions. The Panthers had gone on a 13-3 run after halftime, effectively erasing the 14-point deficit they entered it with, but Braswell’s shooting — including his final one, when he put his head down and sauntered back down the court — helped SU extend it back to 11.

“Robert saved us for a while there,” head coach Jim Boeheim said after the game.

Another late Pittsburgh (6-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) run undid Braswell’s and led to Syracuse’s 63-60 loss, but Braswell finished with a career-high 12 points in a career-high 20 minutes. With Quincy Guerrier on the bench for nearly all of the second half because of foul trouble, Braswell — a redshirt junior who missed the final 19 games of the 2019-20 season because of a shin injury — sparked the Orange’s offense when it went cold. 

It took him three years to reach this breakout game, dating back to when he left his role in the positionless Blythewood (South Carolina) High School offense. He missed most of last season and sporadically played the year before. But on Wednesday, he scored nine of Syracuse’s 28 second-half points, hit three of its five second-half 3-pointers and ensured that the Orange (6-2, 1-1 ACC), with depleted forward depth, could remain in the game with their top offensive threat on the bench.

“Without Robert, we wouldn’t have had a chance,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said. “They would have beaten us early.”

Braswell first subbed with 13 minutes left in the first half, after Guerrier picked up his second foul and blocked a shot on Syracuse’s next defensive possession. Ithiel Horton drove from the wing, twisting his body around Marek Dolezaj in the center, but Braswell slid over from the weak side block and swatted the shot toward SU’s bench. Two minutes later, he collected Buddy’s pass in the corner and hit his first 3 of the season.

“He’s always had that effective 3-point shot,” Zeke Washington, Braswell’s head coach at Blythewood, said after the game. That stemmed from a combination of Braswell’s youth basketball development in Germany, as well as the footwork refinements Washington implemented. The release, aim and accuracy were already sound.

Robert Braswell scored nine of Syracuse’s 28 second-half points. Courtesy of Rich Barnes, USA Today Sports

“What we do is we teach concepts, and then the kids got to put those concepts together and make it flow into the offense,” Washington said. “Now sometimes, it looks really bad. But then as they get it, it flows.

For Braswell, his level of comfort in the offense increased over the final two years at Blythewood. As a junior, he averaged 11 points and six rebounds per game, and those numbers jumped to 16 and eight the next season. Washington had Braswell push the ball up the floor after grabbing rebounds, kick-starting a transition offense before settling in as the trailer.

“Robert had a chance to aggressively get out there and play and all that stuff,” Washington said. “I think all of that helped.”

But, before that shot in the corner, he’d been 0-for-12 from beyond the arc this season. He took five shots there against Niagara and missed them all. Two days later against Rider, he took three more and missed all of those, too.

But during Syracuse’s latest 14-day pause, Woody Newton, the first option for a spark off the bench, wasn’t able to practice — “in isolation,” Boeheim said postgame. Since Braswell could, he became the first option off the bench at power forward after Guerrier committed his second foul, and  he became the second option when he picked up his third less than two minutes into the second half.

Ninety seconds after subbing in, Griffin pulled up in transition and flung a crosscourt pass to Braswell, the trailer shuffling outside the 3-point line. He made that shot. Then, the next one, too, when Griffin drew three Pittsburgh defenders and kicked it out to Braswell. His third consecutive shot helped SU maintain the lead it didn’t give up until the game’s final seconds.

“That’s what he does in practice, that’s what he did all preseason,” Dolezaj said. “I know he was not shooting well the last six or seven games … but he’s a really good shooter. And today he just proved to everybody that he can play and make his shots.”

Those makes helped snap a season-long shooting slump for Braswell. After Syracuse’s game against Buffalo two weeks ago, Washington’s son, watching the game, remarked that Braswell hadn’t played again. He hadn’t entered the games against Northeastern three days prior, either. “Let me text him and see how everything’s going,” Washington thought.

Braswell had told Washington about the bad game that turned into bad games, the one missed shot that turned into many, the opportunity he had at playing time that was slowly evaporating early in the season.

“Coach, I’m gonna keep my head up,’ Washington recalled Braswell typing back. “I’m gonna fight to earn playing time.”

Against the Panthers, Braswell inched toward earning those minutes back some more. And it came when Syracuse needed those points most.

Published on January 6, 2021 at 9:47 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew