There’s a lot to like from the way Syracuse, which lost 72-59 to Virginia on Saturday, plays.
Guards Naithan George, JJ Starling and Nate Kingz made a combined 15 shots in the paint; the D held UVA to 41.3 percent shooting.
They got down 12 early, tied it up just before the half, stayed within hailing distance until the final 90 seconds.
Moral victories don’t figure into the win-loss record, not when this L was the sixth in seven games for ‘Cuse (13-11, 4-7 ACC).
ICYMI
“Obviously, these losses are difficult, and everyone’s frustrated. You know, like I said, today is Saturday, you know, tomorrow, we got to get reset and get ready for our next opponent. That’s the schedule. We still have games left on the schedule, so they have to reset. This is a resilient group, a tough group, and I’m sure they will respond,” said Syracuse coach Adrian Autry, who is now 47-42 at Syracuse, his alma mater, in his third season after replacing the legendary Jim Boeheim, who Autry played for and coached under.
From what I saw of Syracuse today, I can see why they were 12-5 not that long ago.
George (19 points, 8-of-9 FG, 3-of-3 FT) was 6-of-6 in the paint; no idea how he was averaging just 9.7 points per game coming in.
Starling, a former five-star recruit who looks to have topped out as just a really good college player, had 13 points, with five makes in the paint.
Kingz had four makes in the paint and a three to get his 13 points.
Virginia (20-3, 9-2 ACC) put a premium on making life tough on Syracuse’s leading scorer, Donnie Freeman, who came in averaging 18.6 points per game, shooting 50.9 percent from the floor, and 34.0 percent from three.
The 6’9” Freeman scored just five points (2-of-11 FG, 1-of-3 3FG) in 33 minutes.
The other big, 6’9” senior William Kyle, averaging 9.2 points on 66.1 percent shooting coming in, finished with two points (1-of-3 FG) in 32 minutes.
“I definitely thought that physicality was a difference, especially for those two guys,” Autry said. “In particular, Donnie, I thought they really did a good job of pushing him out and keeping a body on him, even when they switched with their guards. You know, Virginia is a very big, physical team, an older team, and have a lot of experience. So, you know, I thought that that physicality really bothered our frontcourt guys.”
Off-night for de Ridder
Virginia dominated the Odom Ball stats – outscoring ‘Cuse 17-8 on points off turnovers, 17-7 on second-chance points, 10 made threes to three for Syracuse translating to a 21-point advantage on the perimeter.
Those numbers were how the ‘Hoos were able to post the dub while getting a lot less than normal from leading scorer Thijs de Ridder (coming in: 16.7 ppg, 53.9% FG, 36.5% 3FG).
De Ridder’s statline on Saturday: nine points, 3-of-11 FG, 0-of-4 3FG, 3-of-5 FT.
“I thought today, he was a little bit disjointed,” UVA coach Ryan Odom said, noting that it was what Autry drew up in his game plan defensively – flexing help in the post, with some outright double-teams – and de Ridder not reading and responding the right way to the way he was being defensed.
“I thought some of them, he should have actually shot the ball, you know, and gone ahead and gotten it up on the on the glass there. He was passing it out a little bit too early before they came, and he was anticipating that they were coming, and when they weren’t, and they were just kind of in there,” Odom said.
The bench came up big
Virginia got its points in the paint from backup center Ugonna Onyenso (10 points, 5-of-8 FG, eight rebounds, four blocks, two steals), who actually logged 23 minutes at the five, getting more time because he was more effective out there than the starter, Johann Grunloh (five points, 1-of-3 FG, 0-of-1 3FG, 3-of-4 FT) in 17 minutes.
Bench contributors:
- Jacari White, in his best overall effort since breaking his left wrist in December, had eight points (3-of-7 FG, 2-of-5 3FG), three assists and two steals in 22 minutes.
- Chance Mallory had five points (2-of-6 FG, 1-of-3 3FG), five assists, four rebounds and two steals in 24 minutes.
- Devin Tillis had four points (1-of-2 FG, 2-of-2 FT), three rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes.
- Martin Carrere, getting two regular-rotation minutes in the first half because of early foul trouble, scored a bucket on a back cut to the basket.
Offensive glass
Virginia ranked third nationally in offensive-rebound rate (40.3 percent) coming in; in the first half, the Cavaliers had five offensive rebounds on 17 chances, for a 29.4 percent rate.
That got fixed at halftime: the ‘Hoos had a 54.5 percent offensive-rebound rate in the final 20 minutes, with 12 offensive boards on 22 chances.
“I thought we really battled with them, for the most part,” Autry said. “I thought at the end, you know, in the margins, where you got to come up with possessions, they came up with those.”
The dominance in the second half translated to 11 second-chance points for Virginia.
Player of the Game: Sam Lewis
Sam Lewis has been on a bit of a tear of late – averaging 14.5 points per game on 48.7 percent shooting from the floor overall and 50 percent from three.
Lewis today: 16 points, 5-of-10 FG, 4-of-8 3FG, in 26 minutes.
“Sam Lewis is a veteran guard. I mean, he made big shots for these guys today. I mean, one at the end of the shot clock. I thought we had a really good defensive possession. He just stepped up and drained it,” Autry said. “Experienced, tough, you know. I think Virginia’s, you know, they’re more physical live than they are on film. I was, I was really impressed with their physicality, especially from the perimeter.”
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Chris Graham
