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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Almost from the opening tip, Syracuse struggled to crack Virginia inside the paint.

Passes down to Naheem McLeod failed. Contested floaters from J.J. Starling failed. No look passes from Justin Taylor failed.

Every player aside from Judah Mintz had to scratch and claw to get past the Cavaliers down low.

But with UVA’s pack line defense shutting down Mintz to just five points, the Orange leaned on their whole bench as they have done all season. Even though Syracuse (5-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) ran nine players deep and finished 40.7% from the field, Virginia (7-1, 1-0 ACC) limited the depth from making any meaningful scoring runs until late in the second half, when it lead by over 20 points in an eventual 84-62 victory.

Everyone who played for SU got points on the board, but no one separated themselves aside from Starling, who finished with 16 points.

“We can play eight or nine guys. Ideally, I would like everyone to play well,” said Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry. “But again, sometimes it’s not gonna happen.”

After a few stops on both sides to start the matchup, McLeod received a pass from Mintz and dunked the ball at the center of the paint for the first points of the afternoon. Less than a minute later, Syracuse passed around the 3-point arc before Chris Bell nailed a long 3 to make the score 5-0.

SU took outside shots as Virginia’s pack line defense intesified. But instead of being drawn into contested shots, the Orange waited for open looks when they couldn’t get inside. Starling, Taylor and Bell drained the shot clock before chucking up shots beyond the arc.

After four minutes without points for SU, Bell worked from the top left corner and faced a double-team as the shot clock winded down. He passed back out to Starling, who nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 8-7. Midway through the second half, the Orange still occasionally tried to work from the 3-point line as backup guard Kyle Cuffe Jr. made the team’s first 3-pointer of the second half.

Autry and Taylor both praised backup forward Maliq Brown. Brown ended the contest with 10 points and five rebounds. After Starling missed a left-handed layup, Brown controlled the rebound and drew the foul for two shots, making both to give Syracuse a rare lead.

“Everyone came off the bench had energy to follow the game plan,” McLeod said. “…So that definitely gave us a boost by bringing the extra energy that we need.”

But the strategy of relying on the bench and playing around the pack line defense costed the Orange. As they started pressing more, Taylor said, the game got much more exhausting.

Starling attributed the loss to poor defensive play, while Autry noted consecutive defensive lapses from the team that let the game spiral out of control. But both ends of the floor seemed to have lapses as Virginia took advantage of SU’s mistakes.

With 13:19 remaining in the contest, Cuffe Jr. stepped out of bounds. Virginia’s Isaac McKneely responded with a stepback 3. Next possession, Bell traveled and UVA’s Ryan Dunn responded with bucket in the paint. Then, Benny Williams missed a 3-pointer before Quadir Copeland got the rebound, but had the ball stolen by Elijah Gertrude. On the other end, Leon Bond III dunked.

The struggles already started though earlier as late in the first half, Starling threw a no look pass that caught Copeland off guard. Taylor had the open shot, but opted to pass out, leading to an eventual miss from Starling in the left corner. This foreshadowed rest of the afternoon as Syracuse finished 5-for-20 from behind the 3-point line.

While facing struggles from 3, the Orange couldn’t even rely on Mintz.

Mintz was coming off his best performance of his Syracuse career against LSU with 33 points. But with the second fewest points from Mintz in a game this season, the opposing fans rewarded him with “Airball” chants whenever he touched the basketball in the second half. Virginia head coach Tony Bennett credited preseason All-ACC guard Reece Beekman for shutting down Mintz, but also commended his whole team’s defense.

“We have to make it tough and he’s so good at drawing fouls and making moves,” Bennett said. “We said, ‘Own the lane, jam the lane.’”

With Mintz out of the picture, Starling became the focal point. As UVA’s defense clamped down on protecting the 3-point line, Starling drove much more into the lane with more cuts and dribble moves. With six minutes remaining in the blowout, Starling sparked a 10-0 run from the Orange with two quick buckets on the fast break.

The Notre Dame transfer also became apt at distributing the ball, assisting on Bell’s only made 2-point shot of the day late in the run. Starling didn’t seem confident that today was his best game, but he certainly didn’t lack confidence when it came to how the rest of his teammates on the bench performed.

“This game today didn’t have anything to do with depth,” Starling said. “It just came down to one team hitting a lot of shots and another team not being able to really stop them.”

Published on December 2, 2023 at 4:12 pm

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