Tyus Battle drove down the floor, pulled up, and drained a jumper with 2.5 seconds to go. Georgetown couldn’t make its desperation heave, and the buzzer sounded.

Syracuse (7-2) got off to a miserable start against Georgetown (7-2) on Saturday in the Carrier Dome. But the Orange roared back to start in the second half, taking the lead for much of the frame. In the end, SU beat the Hoyas, 72-71.

Here are some takeaways from Saturday’s game.

Atrocious start

Syracuse’s season-high in 3-pointers attempted was the 28 it attempted against Oregon. In the first half against the Hoyas, SU attempted 14. The Orange made just one from beyond the arc, though.

Syracuse shot better from inside the arc in the first half, making 6-of-14 from 2-point range, but that still culminated in just 7-for-28 (25 percent) from the field in the first 20 minutes. After two points on Tuesday against Northeastern, Battle didn’t heat up early against Georgetown, making 1-of-8 shots in the first half.

Coming alive

It seemed like nothing would fall for Syracuse. That changed in the second half. In the first four minutes after the break,  Battle scored 10 points. He hit a three from the left corner, finished twice near the rim and made three free throws. His ninth and 10th points forced a Hoyas timeout with the Orange having gone on a 14-4 run to start the second period to get within three.

Georgetown found answers a few times, courtesy of Jessie Govan hook shots. But then Oshae Brissett drained a three from the left corner to get the Orange within two. The Carrier Dome rocked as loud as it had all day.

Syracuse kept making shots. Battle kept scoring. Elijah Hughes hit multiple threes. What was a double-digit deficit at halftime ballooned to a six point Orange lead at one point in the second period.

Magic Mac

Minutes before Saturday’s game started, a Syracuse student said “Mac McClung can’t shoot.” The 6-foot-2 Georgetown freshman is well known on social media for his dunks. Another student responded simply, saying “That’s a fact.”

But the first points of the game came courtesy of a McClung three. He kept shooting, going 5-for-13 and 2-for-8 from deep in the first half. That meant a game-high 13 points at the break, including one layup where he sliced through the entire Syracuse zone before finishing a circus shot inside with his right hand.

McClung slowed in the second half, as Greg Malinowski got hot on the wing instead to the tune of 11 of his own points.

Not much in reserve

Jim Boeheim tried all sorts of lineup combinations in the first half against Georgetown, including one of Jalen Carey, Buddy Boeheim, Battle, Marek Dolezaj and Bourama Sidibe which hadn’t been seen yet this season. Carey and Buddy both played long stretches of minutes, as it seemed Boeheim was looking for some sort of spark.

But no such spark came. The Orange got just four points in the first half from their bench.

In the second half, Frank Howard picked up two more fouls very early on to get to four. That meant  Carey had to play big minutes for much of the game from then on. A few minutes later, Carey led a fast break to set up a Brissett lay up with a bounce pass, and also used a sharp spin move to create space before dumping off to Paschal Chukwu for a lay-in.

Carey contributed more than 10-consecutive second-half minutes. And then Howard fouled out with 3:57 to go and Carey played the rest of the way. He stepped up on back-to-back trips inside three minutes, first hitting a step back three from the left corner late in the shot clock, and then swatting a corner shot at the other end.

Published on December 8, 2018 at 5:51 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3