CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Joe Girard III sized up his defender at the elbow, stepped back and squared his shoulders in a shooting motion. There were just over 30 seconds left in overtime. His runner at the end of regulation had prolonged a largely inconsequential game. But Girard telegraphed this one. The shots hadn’t fallen most of the game. Girard looked for them anyway because, in spots, he was Syracuse’s only chance. He willed his team to score and took it himself in the game’s biggest moments.

After SU’s loss, Girard shrugged. In the grand scheme of the game where he shot 5-of-17, his regulation heroics were a short-lived outlier. His overtime pull-up rimmed out. 

“Throughout the whole game, we have to make shots like (the one at the end of regulation), and we didn’t do that,” Girard said. “That one just happened to go in at that time.”

On paper, Saturday’s matchup with Miami (15-15, 7-13 Atlantic Coast) was an anomaly in the sense that Syracuse (17-14, 10-10) won’t be the more talented team often, if ever, in the coming weeks as the ACC tournament looms. Still, against one of the worst teams in the ACC and without Elijah Hughes for the final 25 minutes, Syracuse was out-rebounded, out-hustled and outplayed on its way to a 69-65 overtime loss filled with missed shots around the arc. 

In the final game before a stretch where it’s not only critical but also necessary that the Orange explode, SU fell flat, going 5-for-25 (20%) from behind the arc. 

The result Saturday meant little: Win or lose, an ACC tournament title is the only sure track to the NCAA Tournament. A loss only worsens its ACC seeding. For as good as the flashes the Orange had given all year long, there are games like this interspersed. Ones that bring back reality. Ones that prove head coach Jim Boeheim right that Syracuse is “not good enough.”

“Maybe we’re not a good 3-point shooting team,” Boeheim said. “I mean, the evidence is there.”

The start to Saturday’s game was perhaps the Orange’s ugliest of the season. Syracuse shot terribly and the game, though sloppy, took no stoppages as missed shots clanked off the rim and into the hands of the opposite team. There were live-ball turnovers and contact rarely led to a whistle. As a result, SU’s mistakes meshed together.

Hughes missed a layup at the rim. Bourama Sidibe was stripped down low. Buddy Boeheim and Girard missed shot after shot. Howard Washington — whose two-minute stretch usually comes as a palate-cleanser after early-game mistakes — passed the ball to Quincy Guerrier in the corner, followed the pass and led his defender over to trap Guerrier in the corner with the ball.

The Orange entered the second half down two, and Hughes scratched his head from the SU bench with his hood pulled over. He wouldn’t return for the Orange because of an apparent head injury, and the second half perhaps started even uglier. 

Aside from a Girard 3-pointer, SU scored little in the first 10 minutes. But Miami scored less. After Guerrier bumped a Hurricane defender and scored as he was knocked down, Syracuse looked primed to pull away. When he missed the free throw, though, Boeheim sunk his chin into his hand on the bench and the Hurricanes answered with multiple 3-pointers to tie the game once again.

The mistakes kept coming: Buddy lost a ball on a breakaway and had his layup blocked. Syracuse missed crucial free throws. It didn’t rotate when even the smallest contest had caused the Hurricanes to struggle shooting. And the shots that Syracuse has used to create its biggest runs all season long eluded them.

“You never want to shoot bad,” Buddy said.

There was always an opening, and that continued. Girard hit a runner when Syracuse needed it in the final seconds of regulation. Then, Isaiah Wong traveled and Syracuse tied the game one final time. But in overtime, Miami’s offense was there. Syracuse’s wasn’t. 

After Wong’s 3-pointer fell through the basket midway through the overtime period, SU quickly took it out of bounds. Girard waved his hand and the ball came right to him. This time he didn’t have a plan. There wasn’t one shot that could bring SU back into the game. Syracuse needed to put together multiple. Girard ushered the momentum and asked his teammates to follow, a request that had been futile all game long. The result put them in the same spot they were before: An underdog in the conference tournament. And it can’t lose again.

“I feel like I don’t want to lose or we can’t lose any game,” Girard said. “So, it’s nothing new.”

Published on March 7, 2020 at 6:41 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary