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Syracuse almost emerged undefeated in the Empire Classic. Jim Boeheim said the Orange played as well as they could in two days versus the Spiders and the Red Storm, taking both of its matchups into extra frames. They fell in the final one to former Big East foe St. John’s, turning the ball over three times in five minutes of play.

Joe Girard provided 21 points in one half against Richmond while Judah Mintz matched a season-high with 20 points. Mintz hasn’t scored less than 16 points in a regular season contest so far this year.

The Orange head back to the JMA Wireless Dome for a contest against Bryant before heading to Illinois and Notre Dame. The Bulldogs are 4-1 this year, coming off back-to-back wins over FIU and Detroit Mercy.

Here’s everything to know about Bryant before the matchup:

All-time series

Syracuse leads 1-0.

Last time they played

In the 2020 season-opener, Bryant perplexed the Orange. The Bulldogs led by 11 points at halftime and held the advantage for 32 of the game’s 40 minutes. Boeheim said postgame that it should’ve been canceled because of the lack of practice SU had amidst the COVID-19 restrictions, though it scraped away with an 85-84 win.

“I made an unbelievable mistake,” Boeheim said. “You cannot play basketball when you don’t practice, I mean that’s a fundamental thing that everybody knows.”

Marek Dolezaj finished with a double-double, scoring 20 points and tallying 10 assists. He also notched the Orange’s last point of the game from the charity stripe with 22 seconds left in the game.

The Bulldogs report

The Bulldogs earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament’s First Four last year, winning the Northeast Conference Championship in a 27-point win over Wagner. Bryant is back to a hot start this year, though all of its wins this season have come against teams not even in the top 200 nationally, according to KenPom.

SU is by far the toughest opponent Bryant has faced this season, and possibly for the rest of the year. Against Florida Atlantic, the only team in the top-100 of KenPom’s rankings that the Bulldogs have faced, they lost 85-74.

Sherif Gross-Bullock is Bryant’s main option, averaging 18.0 points per game along with 5.2 assists per game. Charles Pride, who notched 15 points against the Orange in 2020, has been a contributor as well, averaging 17.0 points per game this year.

How Syracuse beats Bryant

Defense will make or break Syracuse’s season. More specifically, how the Orange guard the 3-point line. Against Richmond in the Empire Classic, Benny Williams and Chris Bell couldn’t close out in time from the corners and wings. Colgate first revealed issues with Syracuse stopping open looks from deep, torching it with 19 3-pointers.

Bryant is similar to Colgate, matching its rate from beyond the arc at a clip of 41%, according to KenPom, though it doesn’t take nearly as many shots from deep. If Syracuse can mitigate the occasional skip pass and close out in time for corner 3s, it should be fine against the Bulldogs.

Offensively, Syracuse needs to continue to give Bell more looks as he showed in Brooklyn that he could hit double-digits in points with more than 30 minutes of play. And if Joe Girard III, Judah Mintz or both can get hot — Girard and Mintz have basically traded carrying Syracuse’s offensive load this year — the Orange should cruise to their fourth nonconference win.

Stat to know: 35.7%

Bryant has an offensive rebounding rate of 35.7%, a ranking that’s 40th in the country. This will be another test for Jesse Edwards, Mounir Hima and the rest of the Orange’s bigs. They’ll have to outperform their average of a 35.4% defensive rebounding rate to mitigate more second chance opportunities from the Bulldogs.

Player to watch: Sherif Gross-Bullock, guard, No. 3

Gross-Bullock arrived ahead of Bryant’s 2022-23 season after averaging 8.7 points per game with Atlantic 10 team La Salle University last year. He was named sixth man of the year in the A-10 as a sophomore, but has sprung into a starting role with the Bulldogs this year. He’s shot 42.9% from the floor and 45.2% beyond the arc. Gross-Bullock recorded more than 20 points in Bryant’s first two games this year.

Simply, stopping Gross-Bullock is the only key Syracuse needs on Saturday. The Orange have shown that they can score the basketball. The only question is can they stop the other team from doing the same. Gross-Bullock is another skilled guard SU will need to tackle. But if it can stop him from finding his shooting stroke, Syracuse can emerge with three wins in its last four games.

Published on November 26, 2022 at 9:27 am

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