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DURHAM, N.C. — Symir Torrence and Jaylen Blakes both tracked the rebound after Joey Baker’s 3-pointer as it descended near the left wing. Duke’s lead over Syracuse had reached 26 points with less than three minutes remaining, and the Blue Devils already started subbing in backups and walk-ons. But as Torrence snared possession and his leg interlocked with Blakes’, those next few moments became extremely important to the Orange’s remaining games and their chance at saving their season.

A referee blew his whistle, Torrence dropped the ball on the ground and took one step toward the painted area before reaching down and grabbing toward right knee. John Bol Ajak placed his hand on Torrence’s back. SU’s reserve guard walked gingerly around, remained in the game and quarterbacked the Orange’s offense for the next possession, but he was eventually subbed out.

Postgame, Torrence told reporters outside the SU locker room that he sprained a ligament in his right knee on that sequence, but that he should be fine going forward. But if he’s limited in any capacity — minutes, or availability for games in general — it’ll thin an SU bench that doesn’t have any other guards who’ve played regular minutes behind Buddy Boeheim and Joe Girard III. Boosted by his recent role in the Orange’s small lineup, Torrence has averaged 12.5 minutes per game and dished 56 assists, the third-most on the Orange, and has become Syracuse’s go-to ball-handler when opposing defenses pressure them.

“He brings a lot of energy, a lot of quickness,” Jesse Edwards said on Saturday, after Jeremy Roach’s man-defense suffocated Girard’s movement on the perimeter and prevented him from conducting SU’s offense with strong positioning. 

Torrence’s tasks have unfolded similarly to Kadary Richmond’s from last year, in a way — a guard that subs in for ball-handling and sparks the Orange’s offense and defense. Girard said after SU’s win over Clemson on Tuesday that SU allows more ball-handlers to be on the court, since defenses can’t double the primary person bringing the ball up the court. Jim Boeheim said the day before that he turned to Torrence against Florida State because Girard struggled bringing the ball up the court with the Seminoles’ pressure and because SU had trouble settling into its offense.

“When all three of us are out there, we kind of just click,” Girard said. 

The latest example for Torrence: Against the Blue Devils, he held Syracuse’s highest individual offensive rating with a 126, according to KenPom. He dished out six assists, one short of his season-high, and hit two of his five shots to finish with four points. He played a season-high 25 minutes, too. His shooting has still been a work in progress, and Boeheim said that “he’s struggling” from every spot — 3s, the free-throw line and the field in general.

“We’d like to see him help us, but we’ve been limited to our starters because they’ve been getting the job done and the guys on the bench haven’t played very well,” Boeheim said.

Saturday reflected another step in that direction, the direction leading to consistent bench minutes and production, for Torrence. In the first half, he checked in for Girard at the under-12 timeout to handle the basketball, and on the Orange’s first possession, he drove right on Baker, paused just above the block and banked in a floater. He ended SU’s sequence two possessions later with a shot too, but this one — from the left block — bounced off the front rim. 

While Buddy and Girard sometimes turned to backing their Blue Devils’ defender into the paint instead of facing them, Torrence showed an instinct to drive instead of reversing himself into situations that inevitably ended with forced turnaround jumpers. He commanded SU’s transition offense by pointing where screeners like Frank Anselem needed to perch in order to free up shots for Buddy and others.

“He’s great,” Buddy said. “He’s really smart, been watching a lot of film. He breaks down his guy and tries to make a play, or he’s telling me, ‘Go in the lane, make a play, beat your guy and see what you can get.’”

Danny Kahn | Design Editor

 

But then the injury happened, and Torrence’s role which had become more certain and more defined over the last few games suddenly became uncertain. Even if Torrence doesn’t miss time because of the injury — he insisted postgame that he won’t — it’s the latest reminder of how thin Syracuse’s depth at the guard position is. Of how it’d struggle to face pressure defenses without him. Of how necessary Torrence will be if the Orange are to salvage their season to any capacity.

The game was won when… 

After Edwards slammed a dunk through the net, pulling Syracuse within 16-15 after the Orange had initially fallen behind by nine points, the Blue Devils ripped off a 15-4 run over the next six minutes to rebuild their lead heading into halftime. 

Paolo Banchero started by converting a layup. Then, heading into the under-8 timeout, Roach threaded a pass to Mark Williams — bypassing the pair of SU guards at the top of the zone and Edwards at the bottom, pulled away from Williams with a glance from Roach — and the center converted the layup and drew a foul.

But the two shots that truly put the game away were made by the same person who opened Duke’s scoring: AJ Griffin. He hit an open 3-pointer from the left corner, rising toward the basket before Anselem could collapse from his position inside the paint, and on the next Duke possession, he stayed in that same spot. Jimmy Boeheim stayed on Williams on the left block and Anselem got caught up near the foul line.

And that left Griffin for another open 3, one of five that he’d make against the Orange. When SU pulled within 16-15, Duke’s win percentage dropped to 89.8%, according to KenPom, but that’s the lowest it reached, and it never dropped beneath 97% in the second half.

Courtesy of KenPom

Quote of the night: Jim Boeheim

“The first seven league games we haven’t had a game like this. We’ve played pretty well, particularly offensively. We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket today. We’re not winning those games.”

Number to know: 17.2%

Syracuse’s 3-point percentage against Duke, the result of making just 5-of-29 shots from deep, was its worst this year and lowest against an ACC opponent since the Orange hit just 3-of-23 shots against Pittsburgh on Jan. 16, 2021. It’s the third game this season where SU has made five 3s, with the other two coming against VCU and Villanova, and in each game, Buddy has shot a combined 3-for-25, or 12%.

In his other 16 games this season, Buddy has connected on 38% of his 3s — a number comparable to the 38% he hit last year and the 37% from the 2019-20 campaign.

Game ball: Jesse Edwards

It’s difficult to find anybody on Syracuse to give a game ball to after a loss like that, but Edwards stabilized SU’s offense once again while also flashing some improvements defensively. He continued to alter corner shots, whether it came via a block or contested hand in the face, and helped deter Duke drivers from entering the painted area. Offensively, he finished 6-for-8 from the field, the most shots he’s made in a game since SU’s loss to Miami, with 22 points while grabbing eight rebounds.

Three final points:

Turnovers — not as bad as the first two minutes suggested 

Three of Syracuse’s first five possessions ended with turnovers against Duke’s defense in the game’s first two minutes, but from then on, the Orange only committed seven compared to 15 by the Blue Devils. Edwards led SU with four turnovers — the second time this season where he’s had more than three, with the other coming against Miami on Jan. 5 when he had six. He also committed his first on the second possession of the game, when Duke doubled off his screen and he lost his handle when Girard — who added three turnovers — flipped it to him on the roll. Syracuse now holds the fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the ACC, and it sits seventh in the conference in overall turnover margin.

AJ Griffin — the latest to capitalize on SU’s 3-point defense woes

Boeheim said postgame that Griffin “was the guy,” yet the Orange still allowed him to convert five 3s, with many of them coming on open looks — especially the pair from the corner that helped flip the game in Duke’s favor for good. Griffin, the younger brother of former SU forward Alan Griffin, has now converted multiple 3s in four of his last five games to lift his percentage from beyond the arc this season to 46.6%.

“That’s just inexcusable,” Boeheim said. “They’re going to get some stuff inside — we can live with that. We can’t give them 14 3s.”

Short leash for the reserve centers

Syracuse used all three of its centers off the bench yesterday, with Anselem logging eight minutes and Bourama Sidibe appearing for one. But both of its reserves at the position operated with extremely short leashes while spelling Edwards, even after Edwards picked up his second foul with seven minutes remaining in the first half.

Anselem was the first to check in, but he was called for a travel to end his first offensive possession. Girard drove in from the corner and attracted help from Williams, leaving Anselem on the left block, but he bobbed up and down with possession — shuffling his feet in the process — after SU’s point guard tossed him the ball. Boeheim then motioned for Sidibe to enter the game, though Anselem rebounded with an offensive rebound, dunk and defensive rebound before the whistle and horn signaled Sidibe in. 

Sidibe, who has only entered into games for eight minutes while he continues to recover from a preseason knee injury, played his lone minute and committed a foul while trying to recover after Banchero burst by him underneath the basket and Boeheim then sent Anselem back in to bridge the gap before Edwards could return.

Next up:

The Orange travel to the Petersen Events Center and face Pittsburgh on Tuesday for their second and final meeting against the Panthers this season. Pitt enters the meeting off its worst loss of the Jeff Capel era margin-wise, dropping its game on Saturday against Clemson 75-48 while hitting only nine shots in the first half and seven in the second.

In its first meeting with Pittsburgh this season, Syracuse outscored the Panthers by 15 in the second half en route to a 77-61 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak behind 24 points from Buddy and 18 from Jimmy. The 2-3 zone showed improvements, Buddy rediscovered a shooting stroke from behind the arc, but the victory serves as just one of two for the Orange in their last seven games.

Published on January 23, 2022 at 6:33 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew