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Quadir Copeland showed his teammates he was more than just a “glue guy” versus Georgetown. Against Oregon, he showed off again. He went 5-of-8 for 15 points while finishing with a team-high nine rebounds, nearly all of them contested, and five assists.

With Syracuse (8-3, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) and Oregon (7-3, 0-0 Pac-12 Conference) facing off at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the two teams displayed a retro, turnover-heavy brand of basketball, combining for 38 giveaways. But SU’s bench, led by Kyle Cuffe Jr., Copeland and Maliq Brown, scored 44 of the team’s points en route to an 83-63 victory over the Ducks. It tied the highest scoring output from SU’s bench all season, equaling its 44-point effort against Chaminade in Honolulu, Hawaii, in November.

“Our bench was huge today,” said Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry. “I can’t say enough about Quadir, Kyle Cuffe, Benny Williams (and) Maliq Brown. I think going forward, that’s what makes this team special.”

The strong bench performance from Syracuse sharply contrasted Oregon, who was without four key contributors — Jesse Zarzuela (undisclosed), N’Faly Dante (hamstring), Nate Bittle (wrist) and Mookie Cook (ankle).

Through just under five minutes, Syracuse went 0-for-5 from beyond the 3-point line. During this stretch, Chris Bell and Judah Mintz both missed once, while Justin Taylor missed two wide-open 3-pointers.

Right before the first media timeout, SU finally made its first field goal. Following an Oregon miss, Bell grabbed the ball and led a breakaway with Mintz. Bell lobbed the ball up to the point guard, who completed the slam dunk to make the score 4-3 through four-and-a-half minutes.

But aside from this alley-oop, Syracuse struggled mightily to gain any sort of offensive momentum. SU started 1-of-11 from the field and initially received no scoring help from either Mintz or J.J. Starling, who combined for nine points through the first 20 minutes.

Mintz finished with a team-high 18 points, but he consistently dished out passes and played aggressive defense against Oregon’s leading scorer Jackson Shelstad throughout the contest. Shelstad scored 10 early, but Mintz played in his face and made Shelstad a non-factor. Mintz conversely finished with five assists and four steals.

But without the scoring output early on, Autry turned to his bench players. At first, it didn’t work. Though Brown scored on a layup and blocked Jermaine Cousinard’s floater on the other end of the paint, Cuffe Jr. clanked his first 3-pointer to move the Orange to 0-for-5 from 3. But for the remainder of the half, the depth started to impress.

The Orange established a fast 8-0 run. Cuffe Jr. hit their first 3-pointer of the game nearly halfway through the half, making the shot from the left wing. On the Ducks’ next possession, Mintz nabbed a steal, leading SU on the transition. While moving down the floor, Mintz threw an alley-oop to Benny Williams. Williams, who tallied a season-high eight points, later threw down a thunderous dunk to put Syracuse up 21-20 in the first.

Autry added that he noticed Williams and Cuffe Jr. had been improving in practice leading up to this game.

“I was really happy with Benny and Kyle,” Autry said. “They hadn’t got a good rhythm the last couple of games. But they stepped right in and made huge contributions on both ends.”

After an errant 3-point shot from Oregon’s Kario Oquendo, Cuffe Jr. dunked the ball on a breakaway to minimize the Ducks’ lead to one. Over halfway through the first half, the Orange were on a 10-3 run. Ducks head coach Dana Altman was livid and called a timeout, while SU’s Copeland brimmed with excitement and energy as SU was only down a point. Following one more Oregon turnover, Cuffe Jr. nailed a step-back 3-pointer to give SU its first lead of the game.

The lead changed four more times in the half and Syracuse continued to control the tempo. Naheem McLeod and Copeland made four free throws to set the score at 25-20 with 3:45 left in the half. And right before the buzzer sounded, Mintz threw another alley-oop to Williams make it 33-25. The bench scored 20 of those points, with Cuffe Jr. leading all Orange scorers with eight.

After a Taylor 3 gave the Orange an 11-point lead, their largest until that point, the bench continued to propel the offense. Early in the second half, Mintz looked to drive but had the ball stripped from him. As Oregon’s Brennan Rigsby tried to start an offensive possession, Copeland stole the ball right back, dishing the ball to Mintz, who increased SU’s point total to 38.

Copeland contributed to Syracuse’s effort in slicing and dicing Oregon’s zone. Working from the free-throw line, Copeland moved inside before dishing an underhand pass to Brown, who scored on a layup to move SU’s lead to 12.

Later in the half, Mintz drove and then threw a slick pass for Copeland, who sank both free throws. After Brown made another free throw, Copeland scored on a layup to increase the lead to 49-36.

Brown also contributed on the defensive side. With Shelstad working from the top of the key, he threw a short pass over to Rigsby. But Brown got his hand on the pass and led a breakaway which ended in another dunk.

On the next possession, Copeland finished with a hard layup on the left side. As if that wasn’t enough, Copeland scored again on a layup. The bench was in complete control as Syracuse now led 63-44 with just over eight minutes remaining. Sure enough on the next possession, Brown made the lead 20 on a dunk. A few minutes later, Copeland scored on an and-one to complete a 3-point play. SU was now at 70, and took its time en route to a cruising victory over the Ducks.

“I thought we played our best game this year on both ends of the floor,” Autry said.

Published on December 17, 2023 at 3:31 pm

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