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Jesse Edwards clenched his fist and stretched his arm into the air, spinning both in a circle — letting his chest and hips sway too — as his Syracuse teammates jogged down the court. The producer of nine points and several successful pick-and-rolls by that point in the first half, Edwards had already sprinted back on defense moments prior after Jimmy Boeheim’s diving layup attempt clanked off the backboard, but the ball careened off a cluster of legs and back to Joe Girard III’s hands at the top of the key.

Girard took a quick look at the basket, then took a step to his left and glanced again. If the Orange were to continue the efficient pace they’d operated with to that point, allowing them to build a seven-point lead with 13 minutes remaining, it meant avoiding forced shots — a sure way to erase leads and flip games around. In some ways, that was the story of SU’s season. This time, though, Girard took the route of patience, resisting a rushed shot in favor of a more controlled one, and it ended with a swish, with Edwards dancing at the other end, and with Syracuse’s lead extending into double-digits.

It was a sequence that served as a snapshot for what happens when one element, the interior play of Edwards, works so well that it unlocks everything else. Ideally, for the Orange, that’s reversed. They were a team built on 3-point shooters. A team meant to score in bunches. They returned Buddy Boeheim and Girard, two of the Atlantic Coast Conference’s top 3-point shooters, and added Cole Swider, a specialist from beyond the arc, over the offseason.

But as Syracuse pieced together its first three-game winning streak of the season, the latest victory arriving via a 92-69 pounding of Louisville on Saturday, Edwards’ contributions and his ability to stay out of foul trouble have given the Orange a pivotal piece that has allowed them to slowly — and within the last two weeks, a little more quickly — start their annual tradition of trying to salvage a resume dinged with early-season holes. With Louisville missing Malik Williams, its tallest rotation player at 6-foot-11, Edwards capitalized on the height advantage and led Syracuse with 19 points and three assists while finishing two rebounds shy of his third double-double this year.

“It’s huge for us, huge for our offense and (Edwards) definitely opens up a lot of other options,” Jimmy said postgame.

This season was the first time the Orange hadn’t had a three-game winning streak before the first week of December since the 1996-97 season, when they won five of their last seven games to squeeze into the NIT but fell in the first round to Florida State.

But even after losses continually sunk SU’s season, they’ve found ways to piece wins together. All five of Syracuse’s starters topped 10 points for the second consecutive game, as Buddy also added 19 and the Orange shot 52% from behind the arc, but Edwards became the name the student section chanted in the second half, a repetitive rhythm of Jesse Edwards. He became the one who motioned back when he subbed out for good midway through the second half.

At the crux of Syracuse’s winning streak has been a balanced and explosive offense, but at the crux of that crux has been Edwards. Against Wake Forest, the Orange shot 57%. Five days later, at NC State, they shot 59%. And on Saturday, when everything that has clicked continued clicking, they torched Louisville to the tune of 92 points at a 55% clip. Edwards scored 12, 19 and 19 points in those games, respectively.

“Offensively, right now, we’re playing at a high level,” head coach Jim Boeheim said.

Jesse Edwards found success rolling off screens he set against Louisville. Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer

The center used pick-and-rolls to find open space underneath the basket against Louisville’s undersized defense and slid behind defenders that tracked the Orange’s shooters and forgot about him. Girard threaded Edwards a pass for a dunk on Syracuse’s second possession of the game, and when he rose for another dunk two minutes later, Swider — who sent the pass to Edwards at the left block — turned around and raised his hand into the air.

Those early conversions around the blocks allowed the Orange to build a 10-point lead by the 12-minute mark, a 17-point lead by halftime and 23 when the final horn sounded. The Cardinals started to catch on to SU’s pick-and-roll approach, as Dre Davis deflected Buddy’s pass to Edwards midway through the opening frame. But that allowed for scenarios like the one that put SU up 35-22: Edwards drew two defenders near the block, and he kicked a pass out to Buddy in the corner for an off-balanced 3 that hit.

“They can’t come off Cole. They can’t come off Buddy,” Boeheim said. “The first half, they came off Buddy, and Jesse made a great pass — got him wide open.”

By that time, Louisville had recovered from its 1-for-7 start from the field, as a jumper and a 3-pointer by El Ellis keyed a brief spurt heading into the Under-16 timeout. The latter allowed the Cardinals to pull within one, but their deficit continually ballooned after that point. Louisville switched when Edwards screened, Boeheim said, and that allowed for those mismatches to open — like when he collected a pass from Buddy and dunked to open the second half, or when he finished an and-one in the earlier frame.

“It’s been working for us in the game before and it’s something where it’s hard to defend,” Edwards said of the pick-and-rolls, “because we got a great shooter on the point obviously or a shooting guard or whoever I set the screen for.”

Edwards snapped a second-half Louisville run by finishing off a pass that he collected from Jimmy Boeheim. Before he checked out with 10:30 remaining, Buddy dished him a pass too, this time with 5-foot-11 Jarrod West switched on him. Edwards sized up West and spun around for a layup.

Then, on the next trip down the court, 6-foot-1 Mason Faulkner switched onto Edwards, and the SU center — at 6-foot-11 — spun around him, too. Faulkner shook his head and stared up the court as the Carrier Dome fans, recognizing the piece of Syracuse’s offense that’d been emerging for a while but finally broke through, rose in unison.

Published on February 5, 2022 at 4:18 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew