The Syracuse Orange fell to 16-7 and 7-3 in conference play after losing to Florida State at home on Tuesday night by a final score of 80-62. The loss drops Syracuse to seventh place in the conference and the Orange will look to bounce back at home this Saturday against Boston College.
Before turning the page, here are our takeaways from the Florida State loss.
Erratic game of runs
Syracuse jumped out to a quick 7-6 lead and after that juncture the Orange would trail the rest of the way. Florida State ran out its largest lead of the night at 36-14 in the first half, but Syracuse made a run and cut the Seminole lead to just eight before the break.
Behind the efforts of Tyus Battle and Oshae Brissett, Syracuse was able to get the margin back to just one when it trailed 46-45 with 13:44 to go in the second half. That was as close as SU would get all night, though.
It was a pretty sloppy game with 40 combined turnovers, but Florida State still maintained the lead for 37 minutes and 50 seconds.
Mann oh Mann
Every time Syracuse made a run, time and again Florida State’s Terance Mann answered. He only missed one shot all night and finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds 3 assists and 2 steals. Perhaps what’s most impressive is that Mann only took nine shots on the night to get his 22 points.
Seniors struggle
After Frank Howard and Paschal Chukwu had solid showings at Pittsburgh this weekend, the two seniors combined for 0 points. That’s the first time Howard hasn’t scored in a game since his sophomore year.
“Frank was not in the game. I don’t know what it was but he was never there. Paschal struggled,” Boeheim said post-game. “When those two guys struggle it’s not good for our team.”
That’s particularly odd for a pair of seniors — while Chukwu has been up and down, Howard has been trending up in ACC play and has been mostly solid in conference play. Boehiem has made mention how key he’s been to Syracuse’s start in the ACC. That wasn’t the case against FSU.
“He can’t get by people. They’re a pressure team and he can’t get by them. He just gets side to side and then he has to throw it and nobody is open,” Boeheim finished.
The offense left much to be desired
Only four Syracuse players scored tonight.
Yeah, you read that right. Of the eight scholarship players to get minutes tonight, only four of them scored. Battle, Brissett and Elijah Hughes scored in double-figures while Buddy Boeheim added 6 points. Nobody else scored for Syracuse tonight. To be fair, there were only three shots taken outside of those four aforementioned players. Howard missed two and Marek Dolezaj missed one shot. What a weird night, eh?
The Orange finished shooting just 41.2 percent from the floor and 25.0 percent from distance.