Four takeaways from Syracuse basketball’s 89-67 win over Seattle

The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team was back in action on Saturday night, taking on the Seattle Redhawks. The Orange got a season-high 89 points in the win while holding the Redhawks to 67, a mark that Seattle was able to reach with an early second half barrage of 3s and a 23 point night from Terrell Brown (No, not Pittsburgh’s Terrell Brown).

Still, the Orange kept the Redhawks at bay thanks to an offensive onslaught from Joe Girard III. That, and five Syracuse players finished with double-figures, as SU shot 59.6 percent from the floor and 39.1 percent from deep.

As always, here are our takeaways from the game.

JG 3s

In his first career start at Syracuse, Girard posted 24 points and only needed eight shots to do it. He finished shooting 7-8 from the floor, 5-6 from deep and 5-5 from the free-throw line. There were some lapses on the defensive side of the ball, including too much space given to Seattle’s shooters and a pair of bad fouls. But that kind of efficiency on offense is absurd.

The Syracuse offense has been better with Girard at the point, but Jim Boeheim said after the game that Jalen Carey will have a role on this team if he works hard in practice. That’s important, because there will come a time when Syracuse needs Carey this season.

Ball Hard D Waiters

Dion Waiters is currently serving a 10-game suspension in the NBA for eating gummies (yes, seriously). He made his way back to Syracuse on Saturday for the game. If he bounces back in the league after this thing, the Carrier Dome could become the place where former Syracuse players that have seen their NBA stardom fall go to resurrect their careers.

Carmelo Anthony was in the dome for the home-opener against Virginia and just signed with the Portland Trail Blazers after his NBA career looked dead in the water. So maybe this becomes a thing.

Or it could actually all backfire and be for naught, but either way it’s pretty cool to see former Syracuse stars come back to their alma mater.

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

Quiet, Quality Quincy

Freshman forward Quincy Guerrier quietly put together a solid game with 14 points and 7 rebounds. He did so without many people noticing (kind of like how I put that photo above from the Colgate game without you noticing) due to his ability to get to the free-throw line. He’s got a strong build with a big frame, so getting to the line should be one of his... strengths.

Still, he only shot 8-14 from the charity stripe. If you hear that noise right now, don’t be alarmed. That’s just our good friend Brent Axe shouting #FreeThrowsMatter.

Those are easy points Guerrier will have to convert if he wants to be effective for Syracuse. Oh, and he finished with a 3-5 shooting effort. Those two misses? From three.

Boehiem said that Quincy is a better shooter than what he’s shown, but that’s his one glaring weakness of his right now. Overall, a solid night for the freshman that should have his role expand as he adjusts and the season wears on.

Doley Doley

Marek Dolezaj finished just one point shy of his career-high at SU. He finished his night with 19 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 rebounds and a partridge in a pear tree.

Dolezaj had almost as many points as he did against Wake Forest in his freshman year the in the 2018 ACC Tournament. Just one more bucket would have required a full pizza pie.

Anyway, Doley balled out and did some damage from the center position as well. Syracuse can afford to go small in some stretches and when you have the Slovakian stat sheet stuffer in there doing what he did on Saturday night, Syracuse is that much better on offense.

For Syracuse basketball stories and updates, follow James and Nunes on twitter at @JamesSzuba and @NunesMagician