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With Syracuse up 81-53 in the fourth quarter, Dwight Buycks Jr. corralled a rebound. Pressed by Antoine Mason, Buycks fired a pass up ahead to BJ Johnson. Johnson raised the ball up, but quickly whipped it back down to his side to create a driving lane as he made his first step. Johnson took one quick dribble to get himself into the paint, before pounding the ball one last time to set himself. With Navar Elmore on his hip, Johnson sprung himself into the air before posterizing Elmore.

“I was missing too many shots, so I decided to take my anger out on the rim,” Johnson said of his dunk.

Boeheim’s Army dominated the paint on Monday, with Buycks’s poster as the finishing blow in their 99-83 win over Team Gibson in the first round of The Basketball Tournament. BA outscored Team Gibson 60-36 in the paint, making up for their lackluster 3-point shooting, going 7-of-25 from beyond the arc. Strong guard play from Grant Riller (20 points) and Buycks (15 points) along with the steady presence of Rakeem Christmas (11 points) helped BA dominate the paint.

Even though the 3-ball wasn’t falling for Boeheim’s Army, it didn’t matter. BA shot over 50% from the field (40-of-79), but 61% on 2-pointers (33-of-54), much having to do with their gameplan on offense. It was clear that after the opening three minutes — which Boeheim’s Army trailed by double digits — that they would have to attack the paint.

BA struggled to execute in the half-court, but their strong defense led to easy looks in transition. Once Boeheim’s Army saw the ball go through the hoop a couple of times, things started opening up in the half-court.

“I think it was more like our defensive and energy. We made some subs and the energy picked up. We got some steals and easy baskets. After we see the ball go in a couple of times we can get really dangerous,” Johnson said.

As the game went on, Boeheim’s Army got more comfortable. Riller ran the point smoothly and controlled the pace of the game. Riller navigated the pick-and-roll well while Buycks went to work using his one-on-one skills. On occasion, Riller used screens to get his defender on his back before accelerating ahead for easy layups.

With time winding down in the first quarter, BJ Johnson used a screen from Christmas, drawing the help defense. Robinson dished it off to Chris McCullough who used a pump-fake to go along the baseline and finish over two defenders. McCullough’s basket tied the game at 18 to end the first.

With Boeheim’s Army continuing to attack the paint, they took the lead and extended it. Up eight with four-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, Buycks had the ball at the top of the key. Buycks pounded left, allowing his body to go with him. As soon as he saw his defender step with him, he shifted his hips back the other way, extending the ball out of reach so his man couldn’t recover. The little hesitation created an open driving lane, to put BA up 34-24.

“We have a lot of players built for a lot of different situations and that’s really important in this because every game kind of calls for something different,” Andrew White said postgame.

White scored a team-high 20 points off the bench, but unlike his teammates, did a lot of his damage from behind the arc. White’s 3-pointer early in the second quarter to put Boeheim’s Army up one gave them a lead that they never relinquished. With his teammates using dribble penetration to draw defenders, opportunities presented themselves for White. The 2017 Syracuse graduate went 4-of-5 from beyond the arch with each of them coming from catch-and-shoot situations.

Another key bench piece was Christmas, who had a quiet first half but came alive in the second. He scored nine of his 11 points after the break.

Christmas substituted in with 5:26 left in the third quarter and BA already leading by 20, but the big man went to work. To start, Christmas hit a turnaround jumper in the paint. A couple of possessions later, he was fed the ball in the post.

Christmas backed down Devin Funchess, pounding the ball a few times before rising up with his left hand, finishing through contact for an and-one. Christmas scored on the next two possessions before help finally came in the third. As he backed down his defender, Christmas spotted White out the corner of his eye, knifing through the lane. He hit his teammate in perfect stride for a wide-open layup as Boeheim’s Army led 69-40.

BA’s paint dominance allowed them to get separation. Despite a sluggish Elam portion of the game — where BA needed to score eight more points with four minutes left — Boeheim’s Army advanced. After winning the tournament in 2021, the team had a similar opening game last year, blowing by India Rising, but fell to The Nerd Squad in the second round.

With a rematch against TNS on Wednesday, Boeheim’s Army has a chance to avenge their loss from last year.

“We’re definitely looking forward to getting them back and it’s one step on the way to our ultimate goal,” White said.

Published on July 24, 2023 at 11:08 pm

Contact Zak: [email protected] | @ZakWolf22