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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — All Quincy Guerrier could do was throw his hands into the air in frustration. 

Jay Huff had flashed to the high post, caught a pass and dished out to an awaiting Trey Murphy in the corner. Guerrier’s closeout was a few steps too late, much like the Orange’s 2-3 zone’s rotation the entire night.

So when Murphy drilled the Cavaliers 10th 3-pointer of the night, Guerrier tossed his hands up, bereft of solutions to stop the No. 8 Cavaliers’ offense. Virginia’s lead ballooned from nine to 14, and it only grew from there. 

Syracuse had seen this UVA offense before, two years ago in the Carrier Dome. An elite passing point guard operating out of the high post surrounded by shooters tore Syracuse apart. Yet again, Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone defense had no answers for the Cavaliers’ shooting barrage. Boeheim shouted at Guerrier as he ran back down the court, but there was nothing Boeheim could say. Postgame, the Hall of Fame coach acknowledged that reality.

“We’re not a top 10 team. They are,” Boeheim said. 

Much like the Orange’s defeat to Pittsburgh nine days prior, when Syracuse allowed 64 second-half points, the Orange had no answer. No reply for Virginia head coach Tony Bennett’s reloaded roster of willing passers. No reply for its able shooters. Syracuse entered Monday night’s matchup with No. 8 Virginia coming off its best win of the season against then-No. 16 Virginia Tech, but that win wasn’t enough to be a signature resume win.

The home win was good, but a road win against the Atlantic Coast Conference leader on Monday could’ve been the Orange’s first back-to-back regular season wins against ranked opponents since November 2015.

Instead, Virginia (11-2, 7-0 ACC) exposed SU’s 2-3 zone with seamless ball movement, off-ball rotations and unconscious 3-point shooting. The Cavaliers drained 14-of-31 from beyond the 3-point arc, and expanded their lead against the Orange’s late full court press to beat Syracuse (9-5, 3-4) 81-58 on Monday night. The Orange are now 17-39 against ranked opponents since 2014.

In its past two games, SU showed improvement by rebounding and preventing open 3-point attempts. Monday night, though, it failed at both. The Cavaliers made seven first half 3s and four more in the first six minutes of the second half to build an insurmountable 16-point lead. 

Syracuse shot 5-of-24 from beyond the arc against No. 8 Virginia. Courtesy of Andrew Shurtleff | The Daily Progress

Virginia brought the same offensive look on Monday from its Carrier Dome outing two years ago. That night, the future national champions put their best passer, Ty Jerome, in the high post. Jerome dished out 14 assists and Virginia tied a program-record with 18 3s. 

Fast forward two years and Bennett had the exact same plan. Virginia’s best passer, Kihei Clark, was in the high post. Clark assisted five of the Cavaliers’ first nine baskets, three of them dunks to open players underneath. Once Syracuse adjusted to Clark’s presence inside, they found Huff instead. 

“We had to take away the lob after they got a couple of those, and we gave them some perimeter shots,” Boeheim said. “You’ve got to give something, someplace. You’re going to give some shots. They make 3s against everybody, they make them against man-to-man, zone, they’re a good shooting team.”

While Boeheim’s zone was picked apart early on, Bennett’s pack-line defense forced the Orange’s offense to operate primarily outside the paint. Boeheim said postgame that they wanted to get the ball to Guerrier “around the basket area” early. 

When Guerrier was isolated on Sam Hauser on the game’s first two possessions, he settled for two shots outside the paint and missed both. Syracuse had some open looks that it missed early in the game, including layups from Guerrier and Marek Dolezaj. But those semi-contested opportunities around the basket became long range misses from Alan Griffin and Joe Girard III.  

Alan Griffin had 13 points along with eight rebounds in Syracuse’s loss to UVA. Courtesy of Andrew Shurtleff | The Daily Progress

The Orange kept firing from beyond the arc, each clank off the rim a reminder of the Orange’s subpar shooting season. Buddy Boeheim finished 1-of-8 from 3 on Monday.

“I thought he had good looks and they didn’t go,” Boeheim said. “He’s a little bit off.”

Syracuse’s contested shot-making kept them competitive in the first half, as difficult pull-up jump shots and long-range attempts were countered by the Cavaliers’ dunks and open 3-pointers. SU had 10 assists on 22 made field goals, much lower than their season-long average assist rate of 60.2% .

Hauser entered the game as the Cavaliers second best 3-point shooter and scored 15 first half points. Syracuse knew it’d need to stop Hauser from draining open looks if the Orange wanted a chance to mount a second-half comeback. Yet to start the second half, Huff moved to the high post and dished out an assist to the corner — to Hauser.

The ensuing possession, Huff found himself at the top of the key, where Murphy’s extra pass resulted in a wide open look for the 7-foot-1 center. When Reece Beekman — who’d made only four 3s this season — hit a wide open 3, Bennett smiled and turned to his bench. 

Syracuse tried to claw its way back into the game with the press — which erased a 16-point deficit in the Elite Eight in 2016. After UVA had three turnovers on the first four possessions, Bennett called timeout. Virginia made adjustments. They resolved turnover issues, resulting in four easy Huff dunks down the stretch. Instead of coming back, Syracuse’s deficit grew larger.   

Syracuse’s defensive rotation and missed assignments issues weren’t fixable — at least not on Monday. After one of their best all-around defensive performances on Saturday, when Syracuse rebounded consistently in an 18-point win against Virginia Tech, Boeheim was asked if he thought the Orange were back to their pre-COVID-19 layoff selves.

“Well, we’ve had two good games,” Boeheim said. 

Two days later, Virginia scored more points on the Orange’s 2-3 zone than they did on 2019’s historic shooting night, and scored more points on the Syracuse zone than they ever have in the Bennett era. Boeheim placed more blame on his offense for not keeping up with the Cavaliers. Guerrier blamed both, as Virginia tallied 27 more points from 3.

“Shooters gotta make shots. We gotta play better on defense,” Guerrier said. “We just need to communicate on defense. We need to make shots too.”

Published on January 25, 2021 at 9:05 pm

Contact Anthony: [email protected] | @AnthonyDabbundo