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Syracuse was a different team across its last two contests — one which finally found a rhythm. In a 69-58 victory at Pittsburgh, the Orange shot a season-best 58.8% from 3 and limited their opponents to a measly 19.2%. Against Miami, J.J. Starling’s 22 points and Judah Mintz’s career-high 13 assists set the table for Quadir Copeland to win in buzzer-beating fashion, 72-69.

But Tuesday’s loss to Florida State abruptly halted SU’s two-game Atlantic Coast Conference win streak. Its perfect 9-0 home record at the JMA Wireless Dome was wiped. In an attempt to strengthen their middling NCAA Tournament resume, the Orange fell short.

The eventual outcome linked arms with prior embarrassing results at Virginia, Duke and North Carolina — all 20-plus point deficits. The fluid passing and high-percentage looks, as of late, had vanished. Stagnant offensive sets and a plethora of defensive collapses re-emerged.

By way of an unsalvageable second-half collapse, Syracuse (13-6, 4-4 ACC) suffered an 85-69 loss to FSU (12-7, 6-2 ACC) Tuesday evening. The Orange mustered a pitiful 7.1% clip from 3 and made just 66.7% of their free throws — both marks were their worst of the season. SU’s last lead came at 54-53 with 11:54 left in the game before the Seminoles embarked on an insurmountable 34-15 run to cement a convincing victory.

“The reality is they wore us down. They outplayed us,” said Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry. “Once they got the lead they made shots and we picked the worst time not to make anything.”

From start to finish, nothing came easy for the Orange. Switching off of ball screens, Florida State played an aggressive brand of defense and went 10 or 11 players deep. It made every catch hard and consistently denied every passing lane.

Offensively, FSU’s Jamir Watkins poured in a career-high 27 points to headline a 49.2% shooting night from the visitors. Autry said Syracuse stopped trying to defend down the stretch. It “started reaching, started gambling, just trying to make stuff happen. And (Florida State) took advantage of it.”

The Seminoles never looked sluggish scoring the ball. After a few early misses, forward Baba Miller flushed an uncontested dunk and Watkins converted an and-one opportunity before tying the contest up at 9-9 by way of a smooth floater. Darin Green Jr. then sank a long 3 from straight on to give FSU a 12-11 edge.

SU started by getting what it wanted on offense but quickly fell cold. Starling went 0-for-3 after notching his first bucket on a teardrop in close. Benny Williams saw a 3 rim out and Chris Bell’s perimeter attempt was blocked by Taylor Bol Bowen. An over-ambitious Copeland committed a charge driving right mere moments after he checked in to a chorus of cheers, extending a near-three-minute scoring drought.

Turnovers and empty Syracuse possessions persisted until a second media timeout at the 7:46 mark. Starling slipped and lost the ball, Bell misfired from the right wing and Williams was stripped on the lower left block. And while SU failed to score, FSU ramped up a 21-15 advantage. Watkins, a sub-30% 3-point shooter, canned from range and assisted Jaylan Gainey on a dunk moments later. Primo Spears — FSU’s third-best scorer averaging 11.3 points — etched himself onto the scoresheet with a right-corner 3 to make it 23-16.

Collecting an outlet pass deep in his own backcourt, Starling sped down the right sideline. He attacked without hesitation, despite his early struggles. Slicing through the Seminoles’ defense from left to right, Starling finished high off the window over Bol Bowen to score and draw an and-one opportunity.

Yet Starling missed the free throw — another recurring but early example of points left on the table. Florida State had entered the bonus with around seven minutes left in the first half, but Syracuse couldn’t capitalize. At the break, despite leading 36-35, SU shot an uncharacteristic 57.9% from the charity stripe — a mark which barely increased the rest of the way.

“Our shots weren’t falling from 3 or the free throw line. So yeah… it was an off day,” said Syracuse forward Maliq Brown.

FSU gifted the Orange a slew of missed offensive opportunities to begin the second. Miller fell short on an ill-advised turnaround attempt while Watkins drew air on a floater that he was successful in making thus far. The Seminoles attempted to speed SU up by executing a full-court press — one which forced Mintz into a time line violation earlier — but the home team broke it easily to generate an easy 2 for Brown, giving Syracuse a 59-58 advantage.

The back-and-forth continued until around the 12-minute mark. Florida State looked comfortable with what it ran but the Orange didn’t. Redundant straight-line drives from Mintz, with minimal passing around the perimeter, resulted in a career-high 15 trips to the line. He finished with a game-high 28 points.

But this wasn’t a sustainable source of offense. At best, it momentarily kept a physical FSU team at bay by slowing the game down. The Seminoles eventually adapted to fence off the same open lanes that Mintz frequented. Once that happened, Syracuse lost its lead and the deficit began to snowball.

“Offensively, we went on a stall where we couldn’t score, and it was really a lot of us depending on Judah,” Autry said. “It’s very tough to move the ball the way they’re aggressive and play in open lanes and we just didn’t get good movement.”

Sophomore forward Cam Corhen made a right-handed layup and Watkins followed with an emphatic two-handed alley-oop to manufacture a 57-54 visitors’ cushion. Then, an errant cough-up from Mintz near midcourt fell into Green Jr.’s lap for a comfortable fast-break layup — 63-58.

Instead of calming down, SU sped up. It panicked. Shots were thrown up across the perimeter and Syracuse’s ball-handlers were rendered powerless in traffic. Wild passes careened out of bounds and tempers flared. The final minutes were littered with FSU run-outs. More flashy alley-oops which Watkins slammed down. A couple of open 3s and an acrobatic and-one from Spears capped off a forgettable performance for the Orange.

Florida State swished a slew of free throws, too, just to rub it in even further.

“We couldn’t get anything, our offense was just the worst it was the whole year… We just didn’t do a good job offensively,” Autry said. “They came in and just took us out of anything we tried.”

Published on January 23, 2024 at 9:31 pm

Contact Tyler: [email protected] | @theTylerSchiff