Final Score: Colgate 100, Syracuse 85

The Syracuse Orange had been pushing to enter the Top 25 but on Saturday afternoon they watched the Colgate Raiders rain down jumpers from every spot of Jim Boeheim Court. The Orange broke out the beautiful script uniforms for this one and for the first few minutes it looked like a blowout.

Syracuse and Colgate started off opposites on the offensive end. While the Orange hit everything the Raiders couldn’t find the range missing 12 in a row from beyond the arc despite open looks. Syracuse was off to a 15-2 lead in the first five minutes led by Joe Girard III with eight of those early points.

Colgate started to find the range and hit two from deep to cut the lead to 23-14 while Girard and Jesse Edwards were on the bench. The Raiders kept it going as they got within four before Benny Williams scooped up a bad Girard pass and slammed it home followed by a Buddy Boeheim run to push the Syracuse lead back to 11.

The Raiders ended up taking a 46-43 lead into the half as they made 11 of 22 from 3. Buddy had 15 points at the break while Girard had 10 points and 7 assists.

Syracuse’s shooting woes continued in the second half as the Orange fell behind by 9 before turning to the full-court press after the under-12 timeout. Jim Boeheim went small with Jimmy Boeheim taking over in the middle playing alongside Buddy, Girard, Benny Williams and Symir Torrence. Girard went on a mini-run to bring Syracuse back within 6 with 9 minutes to play.

This game might have been best illustrated by the subsequent possession when Colgate got three offensive rebounds and burned a minute of clock before drawing a foul on Edwards and pushing the lead to 8. The Raiders responded to each Orange run as Ferguson got loose off an in-bounds to extend to 81-70 with 5 minutes to go.

Syracuse’s full-court press only led to one Colgate turnover as the Raiders went over and around the Orange defenders with ease down the stretch. Nelly Cummings’ final 3 gave the Raiders 100 and what’s poppin’ tonight will be the streets of Hamilton to celebrate this Colgate win.

Girard’s shooting was the only thing keeping Syracuse in the game as he poured in a team-high 27 to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists. Buddy finished with 19 points and Jimmy Boeheim chipped in 11 points and 10 boards. Ferguson led Colgate with 25 and Cummings had 18 with both shooting 6-13 from 3. Colgate out-rebounded Syracuse 44-34 and had 19 of those on the offensive end. The Raiders finished the game 18-43 from 3 while the Orange were only 7-23 (3-10 in the 2nd half).

The Orange head to the Bahamas next where they will face VCU on Wednesday night at 5:00.