Syracuse 115, Siena Summer Select 56: Orange Move to 3-0 in Italy

Fresh off a 103-54 drubbing of Oxygen Bassano on Wednesday, Syracuse basketball followed up with an even more lopsided 115-56 win on Saturday, moving to 3-0 on their tour across Italy. Facing off against Siena Summer Select, SU was able to open things up early with a blistering pace and diverse group of scorers.

Nine different players scored in the first half alone, helping the ‘Cuse to a sizable 54-26 halftime lead. The tempo and scoring pace continued in the second half, with Syracuse basketball pulling away for the nearly 60 point victory.

Six different players scored in double figures including: Quency Guerrier (14), Jalen Carey (15), Bourama Sidibe (10), Elijah Hughes (13), Brycen Goodine (10), and Joe Girard, who led all scorers with 16.

One interesting event that happened fairly early in the game and continued throughout was Syracuse basketball switching to a three-guard, man-to-man defense. While these are just exhibition games, it’s still encouraging to see Jim Boeheim at least toying with the concept.

Here are a few more encouraging signs from today’s game:

• Jalen Carey was in attack-mode. He had several driving layups and was clearly the fastest player on the court. He also added 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 steals.
• Quincy Guerrier is a manster (man/monster). He absolutely dominated the interior. He ended up with the game’s only double double, and even chipped in with 5 assists. He is the real deal.

• Robert Braswell is sneaky good. He can score. He can defend. He can shoot the three. What’s not to like?
• This team can run. Yes it was a shorter shot clock. Yes the competition is lacking. It’s still exciting to see the entire team racing up and down the court like this, and a promising sign for this season.

And so Syracuse leaves Florence with a victory. Rome is the final stop on their cross-country trek, where they play Team Virtus Roma tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET. We’ll set up a game thread for discussion since the sun will actually be risen on the east coast for that contest.