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Coming off a 29-point loss to Duke — its largest of the season — Syracuse welcomed an easier test on Saturday, facing off against Boston College. On Wednesday against the Blue Devils, the Orange were completely outclassed. Despite Cooper Flagg being held to 11 points on just seven shots, Syracuse couldn’t capitalize. J.J. Starling and Jyáre Davis led SU in scoring with 12, but the Orange shot just 38% from the field.

After facing the best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse hosted one of the worst Saturday. Entering the contest, BC sat in 16th place in the ACC, the final spot which would miss the postseason conference tournament.

Syracuse led by seven at halftime and held a comfortable advantage for most of the second half, but Boston College eventually forced overtime. The Orange trailed by as many as seven in the second overtime, but came back to steal it in the third OT.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (11-13, 5-8 ACC) 95-86 triple overtime win over Boston College (10-13, 2-10 ACC).

Moore’s aggressiveness

Elijah Moore has had an up and down start to his college career. Moore has started SU’s last 10 games, but hasn’t played more than 17 minutes in any of them. His most points during that stretch was when he scored eight points against Notre Dame on Jan. 18. In less than three minutes on Saturday, Moore already equaled that total.

He opened the game with a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock on SU’s first possession. The next time down the floor, he cashed in on another triple following a kick out from Davis. Moore remained aggressive, collecting the ball on the wing, receiving a screen from Eddie Lampkin Jr. Moore navigated Lampkin’s screen by going left and accelerating down the lane. Once he got to the rim, Moore scored on a reverse layup with his right hand.

It was the most aggressive Moore has been during the opening portion of a game in a while. In Moore’s previous 12 games, he made three shots just once. Even with Moore’s hot start, SU head coach Adrian Autry subbed him out of the game at the 13:06 mark and kept him on the bench for the next nine minutes.

When Moore returned, he canned his third 3-pointer of the half. The freshman had a game-high 11 points at halftime. Moore didn’t see the floor much in the second half and was held scoreless.

More McLeod minutes

Naheem McLeod has played sparingly this season. When Lampkin isn’t on the floor, Autry often opts to use Davis at the center spot. That’s changed the past couple games. Against Duke, McLeod played a season-high 22 minutes after playing a combined 23 in eight appearances.

The senior took advantage of his minutes, scoring a season-high 10 points. Saturday, McLeod made his presence felt on the defensive end. He used his 7-foot-4 frame to effect numerous shots in the paint. First, he blocked Chas Kelly III as he tried to bank the ball in off the backboard. A couple minutes later, McLeod got his fingertips on Chad Venning’s jump hook for his second block.

McLeod’s length got in BC’s heads. Jayden Hastings tried to drive baseline on Petar Majstorovic, with McLeod sliding over to help. Due to McLeod’s size Hastings picked up his dribble and traveled.

When McLeod was taken out of the game with 7:41 left in the first half, he never returned.

Finishing the half strong

Joshua Beadle hit Boston College’s fourth 3-pointer of the first half to put the Eagles in front 24-23 with 5:11 left in the first half. From there, Syracuse would hold BC to one field goal for the rest of the half, outscoring the Eagles 11-3, to go into halftime with a seven point advantage.

Starling scored his first points of the game with 4:35 remaining on a floater in the lane. Donald Hand Jr. hit another 3 to put BC back in front, but Syracuse scored nine in a row to close out the frame.

Moore’s third 3 and another Starling floater made it 30-27 before Lucas Taylor and Lampkin added two more scores. Defensively, SU was more connected during that stretch than any other portion of the first half. Good communication between Moore and Taylor forced Kelly to dribble the ball of his leg in the corner. Kelly turned the ball over a second time after getting caught in the air due to a collapsing Syracuse defense. The strong finish to the half resulted in a 34-27 halftime lead.

Second-half Starling

Last time Syracuse and Boston College met, it was the Staring show in the second half. He scored 20 of his game-high 26 points after halftime to help Syracuse come out with a win. The Orange didn’t need Starling to completely take over the game this time around, but he did start slow again. Starling didn’t register his first field goal until over 15 minutes into the game.

Starling maneuvered in the paint, putting up a floater for his first shot of the second half, but it hit the back iron. Moore pulled in the offensive board and hit Starling in the corner for a long two. The ensuing possession, Starling confidently stepped into a 3 from the wing to push SU’s lead to 43-37.

After knocking down a couple jump shots, Starling used his gravity as a jump shooter to get into the paint. He blew by his initial Hand, beating the help defense for an easy layup, extending Syracuse’s advantage back to six.

Weirdly, Autry pulled Starling with 12:38 remaining in the game and kept him on the bench for over five minutes. When Starling exited, Syracuse led by nine and when he came back the lead was cut to four following a 6-0 Boston College run.

Autry called a timeout and brought Starling back.

His next shot attempt came with 3:37 remaining, taking a long floater, but was fouled by Luka Toews. It was Starling’s first trip to the free throw line all game. The point guard cashed in both attempts to make it a two possession game. Starling floated home his fifth field goal of the second half with 2:18 remaining.

After scoring just four points in the first half, he finished with a team-high 28 in 42 minutes.

Overtime madness

Syracuse was well on its way to a win, leading by five with under 20 seconds remaining in regulation. That was until the Orange missed three straight front ends of one-and-one’s at the free throw line with Starling missed twice and Lampkin another time. It allowed Boston College to have the ball down three points with five seconds remaining.

Syracuse elected not to foul, which allowed Fred Payne to hit a game-tying 3-pointer with one second remaining, sending the game to overtime. Following two Davis free throws, Hand gave BC its first lead since the first half with a 3-pointer.

Davis continued to be aggressive, with six early free throw attempts as SU jumped back in front 73-72. Hand also split a pair of free throws to tie the game, but Taylor broke it with a drive to the basket. Venning had an and-one to continue the seesaw.

With the game tied at 76-76, Boston College had the ball with a chance to hold for the last shot, but the Eagles turned the ball over. Starling sprinted down the floor and put up a 3-pointer at the buzzer which was off the mark, sending it to double overtime.

Boston College scored seven straight points to open up the second overtime period, but four straight from SU cut it to a three point game with 1:14 left. Then Starling made it a one point game with two free throws. Eighty seconds later, Starling tied the game at the line with a free throw but missed the second sending the game into a third overtime.

Across the final five minutes, Syracuse used a heavy dosage of Davis and Starling. The two combined for SU’s three field goals in the period and six points to help SU survive.

Published on February 8, 2025 at 6:30 pm

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