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With Syracuse holding a 22-14 lead in the first half, Joe Girard III slowly dribbled up the court to set up the offense. Louisville entered today’s game without Malik Williams, so as it had been doing all game, the Orange attacked the paint with Girard passing to Jesse Edwards.

Edwards tried to back his man down, but he ran into a wall, so he passed it out to Buddy Boeheim on the wing. Buddy pump-faked a 3-pointer to get past his man, and he drove to the paint. But he too swung a pass to his brother Jimmy Boeheim on the opposite wing.

Jimmy received the ball in space and could’ve shot a 3 or drove into a now wide-open lane. Except Jimmy chose a third option. He made the extra pass to Girard, who rose up and drained an easy 3.

“That was probably my favorite play of the game,” Jimmy said. “It was just really good offense. The ball just moved really well that possession.”

Girard’s 3-pointer was one of 12 that Syracuse (12-11, 6-6 Atlantic Coast) drained in a 92-69 win over Louisville (11-12, 5-8 ACC). The ball movement supported the shooter as the Orange racked up 21 assists, the most in ACC play this season. Early on, it was the pick-and-roll that opened up 3-point shooting opportunities before the Orange began to make 3s in transition and off spot-up shots. Girard, alongside Cole Swider and Buddy, made the bulk of the 3-pointers, going 11-for-20 combined.

“(The ball) moved really well throughout the game and has been moving well the last three games,” Jimmy said. “That’s definitely something we’re going to try to keep going forward. Just doing a good job of sharing the ball and finding the open guy.”

Early in the game, Syracuse took advantage of Williams’ absence by feeding Edwards off the pick-and-roll for easy dunks and layups. But soon, Louisville began to adjust by bringing an extra defender down low to try and swat the ball before the Syracuse center could get it. So Syracuse looked to counter.

After setting a pick for Buddy, Edwards quickly rolled to the basket. Edwards grabbed the pass from Buddy and swung the ball to Swider in the corner for an deep shot.

“When I see the pass or when I see someone open I try to always find them and it felt good coming out of my hand,” Edwards said. “So I saw Cole in the corner and I really just thought pass it to him, and it worked out nicely. He drained the shot so credit to him.”

When the pick-and-roll stopped working, Syracuse’s shooters began to call their own number. In the second half, with Louisville trailing by 23, Jarrod West grabbed a defensive rebound. As West dribbled up the court, he tried to pass across the court to a teammate. But Girard, stationed at half court, stuck his hand out to stop the ball and began to dribble the other way.

Girard dribbled up to the wing as West shuffled over to cover the man he just turned the ball over to. With a couple dribbles, Girard then pulled the ball back to create enough separation from West to rise up for a shot. Girard’s shot would have been a 3, but his right toe was on the 3-point line, rendering it just a two.

“Joe Girard has been really good all year, and he’s been outstanding in the last three games,” head coach Jim Boeheim said.

But while Syracuse was thriving from 3, Louisville struggled every time a Cardinals player took a shot from deep. The Cardinals finished the first half 2-for-16, which largely contributed to the 17-point deficit they faced at halftime. They started the game missing five straight before finally making two in a row. But then, Louisville missed nine straight to end the half and only made another 3 almost two minutes into the second half.

That stretch totaled 17 minutes of game time as Louisville could not find a way back into a game Syracuse had led the whole way. With the Orange up big, Boeheim began to pull most of the starters.

Edwards was first with about 10 minutes left in the game, while the rest of the starting five followed in the next few minutes. Buddy left with about six minutes left while Louisville was 6-for-27 from 3. The Cardinals would make four out of eight when the Syracuse bench began to rack up minutes.

For the first time this season, the Orange have won three games in a row. Much of that is due to a significant improvement in shooting the ball from 3 as Syracuse has shot over 50% from deep in all of its wins.

“You’re not always going to shoot 50%, but hopefully we can do it as long as we can,” Boeheim said. “Our defense has to get better so that when we don’t shoot 50%, we can still find a way to win games. That’s important.”

Published on February 5, 2022 at 6:37 pm

Contact Gaurav: [email protected]