There was a thought, fleeting and wildly off-base, that Syracuse had played its way into NCAA Tournament consideration with its late-season four-game winning streak.
We can move on from that nonsense now that the Orange bounced out of the ACC Tournament with a listless 83-65 loss to NC State on Wednesday.
Stat of the day from DC: the Wolfpack (19-14) had a 30-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
Syracuse (20-12) turned the ball over a ghastly 12 times in the second half alone, rendering moot its 53.6 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes.
‘Cuse had won four straight to get to 20-10 before getting waxed by Clemson, 90-75, in its regular-season finale, last week.
That loss, and the poorly-timed extra days off from Syracuse getting the final bye of the regular season, no doubt stamped out whatever momentum there had been from the winning streak.
State, which had to play its way into the second round with its 94-85 win over Louisville on Tuesday, took care of the rest.
It was close for a good while – the Pack led 35-32 at the break, and Syracuse led 39-37 a minute into the second half on a Chris Bell three.
A DJ Horne jumper ignited what amounted to a 21-2 NC State run.
Syracuse, over the six minutes-plus in that run, missed six of its seven shot attempts and committed, gasp, six turnovers.
It was basically over from there. Syracuse made one brief run to get the margin to 10, but State responded with an 8-0 mini-burst to put the game out of reach before the under-8 second-half timeout.
When the final horn sounded, ‘Cuse star guard Judah Mintz who had 21 points, four assists and six turnovers, stood on the Orange sideline in shocked disbelief, marveling at the missed opportunity.
“You know, we had a different team this year, obviously, than last year, different head of the snake. We’ve got a different coach,” Mintz said, referring to first-year head coach Adrian Autry, who took over for his long-time mentor, Jim Boeheim, last spring.
“Just trying to learn and grow with my team. It was difficult at times, but I’m proud of the group we had at the end of the day,” Mintz said.
For State, reality check: the Pack isn’t going to the NCAA Tournament unless it cuts down the nets on Saturday night.
The win here today means, live another day.
“Proud of our guys. Another win,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts told reporters after the game. “When you get to this point, we understand that if you win, you go home, and obviously for us, it’s a good win for us, and we stacked a win, and obviously now we’ve got to prepare for a really good Duke team.”
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Chris Graham
