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Following a 1-1 outing at the Empire Classic, Syracuse returned back to the JMA Wireless Dome to face Bryant, a team that made it to the First Four last season and has one of the top offenses in the America East conference.

The Bulldogs came into the game 4-1 on the year, notching consecutive wins over FIU and Detroit Mercy.

Initially, Bryant seemed geared to cruise to a 5-1 record, jumping out to an 11-point lead at halftime following Judah Mintz’s ejection from the game. But the Orange, behind Jesse Edwards’ strong rebounding presence and Justin Taylor’s emergence as a scorer, battled back in the second half, outscoring the Bulldogs 43-33 and taking their first lead of the game with just over three minutes left. 

Joe Girard III gave the Orange one of their only leads of the game with eight seconds left. But after Girard gave SU a 71-70 lead off of two free throws, Sherif Gross-Bullock rushed down the floor and sunk a layup with less than a second remaining. 

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (3-3, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) 73-72 loss against Bryant (5-1, 0-0 America East): 

Mintz’s night ends too early

Mintz has been the Orange’s main bright spot early on, scoring more than 16 points in each game he has played. Against Byrant, Mintz seemed on his way to achieving this feat again.

Mintz worked alone, driving into the lane before stopping and pulling up for a shot. The ball dropped in from the left side as he fell to the ground, drawing the foul and cutting SU’s deficit to five points at 11:50 left in the first half. Mintz then made the ensuing shot.

But his night came to end quickly with just over seven minutes remaining in the first half. As Mintz charged into the center of the lane, he elevated for a shot, but ran into Gross-Bullock on the way down. As Gross-Bullock laid on the floor, Mintz tried to untangle himself, seeming annoyed as Doug Edert slightly shoved Mintz. Mintz took exception to this shove and slapped Edert in the face as he walked away from the lane. But Edert furiously slapped Mintz back, causing a scuffle.

Both Mintz and Edert were ejected. Mintz left the game, solemnly hi-fiving a few fans as he entered the tunnel. He exited the contest with seven points on 2-of-7 shooting, an assist and a steal. 

Leading scorer….Justin Taylor?

Following a tense first half full of ejections, Syracuse’s leading scorer wasn’t Mintz, Joe Girard or Jesse Edward. It was Taylor — the freshman guard who hadn’t played more than 20 minutes in a game.

With Mintz gone, Taylor became the Orange’s go-to scoring outlet and sparked the Orange’s second half comeback against the Bulldogs. 

By halftime, Taylor had scored more points in 10 minutes against Byrant (nine) than he had in SU’s first four games (seven). Taylor knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing, making the score 25-20 in favor of the Bulldogs. While making another shot from the field, Taylor also made free throws to increase his point total. Ten of Taylor’s 25 total points came from free throws, with two of them giving SU a 69-67 lead after Walker got called for a technical foul. 

During the heart of Bryant’s 10-2 scoring run in the second half, Taylor came back into the game. He hit a 3-pointer in the corner after Girard drove in and passed out to him in the left corner. 

Out of another media timeout, Taylor nailed a fadeaway jumper from the right side. Minutes later, Taylor drew Walker’s fourth foul on a shooting foul and one of his free throws put the Orange down by only six points. Taylor then missed a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer but got his own rebound and scored on a jumper, moving him to 18 points.

Taylor then made his third 3-pointer from the right wing to move his point total to 21. But while Taylor kept the Orange in the game, he was on the free-throw line with 20 seconds left to tie the game, making only one of his shots from the charity stripe.

Edwards career rebounding day

While Byrant had the 40th-best offensive rebounding rate in the nation, Edwards had three inches over the Bulldogs’ center — Antwan Walker. And after an up-and-down first half, Edwards asserted his dominance under the hoop. 

At the beginning of the second half, Edwards finished inside after getting the rebound from a missed shot, getting fouled as he scored. 

But Edwards also dealt with foul trouble. He collected his fourth foul on an over-the-back call with 12 minutes remaining in the game. Boeheim decided to keep Edwards in the game, still contributing. After another miss from Girard, Edwards collected the rebound on the left block to bank in a layup to lessen Syracuse’s deficit to eight points with over 10 minutes to go.

As Taylor fueled the comeback, Edwards provided the boards, giving the Orange their first lead of the night with over three minutes remaining. He collected a Gross-Bullock miss from the charity stripe. And on the other end, Edwards got his 21st rebound of the game off a missed Girard 3-pointer and scored the putback to give SU the lead. But shortly after, Edwards’ night came to an end after picking up his fifth personal foul, ending his night with a career-best rebounding performance.  

Bryant wins back-and-forth battle

As Edwards’ play initiated a spark from the Orange’s offense, the Bulldogs responded by easily outshooting them and controlling the pace. Per KenPom, Bryant has the third-best adjusted tempo in all of Division-I. 

With just over 16 minutes left, Bryant proceeded to go on a 10-2 scoring run over the next three minutes. Pride started the run by collecting an offensive rebound and scoring on the ensuing layup.

Miles Latimer was left wide open in the right corner. Not even a minute later, Gross-Bullock nailed a long 3-pointer to move the Bulldogs’ lead back up to 13 points. Walker caught the alley-oop to force another timeout from Boeheim. 

The Bulldogs still used this tempo even as the Orange came back. Even after Taylor energized the crowd with a jumper, Walker responded with a quick layup. With four and a half minutes remaining, following two Chris Bell to make it a one-possession game, Earl Timberlake got a layup and drew the foul to maintain a four-point lead.

After Edwards gave SU a short lead, Timberlake came right back down the floor and scored on a layup to give the Bulldogs a 62-61 lead. But the Bulldogs clawed back with four free throws, knotting the game up at 69 apiece with less than 40 seconds to go.

Gross-Bullock killed the Orange. He got his only steal of the game off an errant Girard pass to score a fast layup to give Bryant a 71-69 lead. And after Girard gave SU a one-point lead off of two free throws, Gross-Bullock rushed down the floor and sunk a layup with 0.8 seconds remaining. While Syracuse’s Peter Carey tried to block the ball, Gross-Bullock elevated above all the Orange players to sink them.

Published on November 26, 2022 at 6:53 pm

Contact Henry: [email protected]