NEW YORK — Syracuse’s (7-3) offense struggled in the half-court set on Sunday afternoon in an 84-72 loss to St. John’s (7-3) at Madison Square Garden. The Orange shot 5-of-26 from 3 and was out-rebounded again, this time by 15. On the other end, St. John’s shot 12-of-24 from long range.

Syracuse got down by as many as 13 in the second half, but never cut the lead to fewer than seven points. Once again, Frank Howard took over the backup point guard role for Syracuse, playing more minutes than Kaleb Joseph for the third straight game.

But no matter who was in — Malachi Richardson and Trevor Cooney shot 1-of-19 from 3 — it didn’t put an end to the poor shooting that plagued Syracuse in its third loss in the last four games.

Here are three things we learned from SU’s loss.

1. Syracuse should have gone to the press before it did

The Orange forced three straight turnovers in the second half using its press and sliced into a 13-point deficit. Some missed opportunities on offense prevented Syracuse from completing the comeback, but it proved to be an effective tool.

Interim head coach Mike Hopkins waited to go to the press because he thought Syracuse was close enough that it only needed a stop and a bucket to get back to a manageable deficit. He also noted that it’s not typically Syracuse’s style to go to the press in certain situations.

“Hindsight, I wish I would have done it with seven minutes to go,” Hopkins said. “It was a decision, and it wasn’t enough.”

But it proved to fluster the Red Storm — head coach Chris Mullin said many of his team’s mistakes were unforced — just not enough to fully come back.

2. Michael Gbinije can go cold, quickly

The starting point guard scored 21 points for Syracuse, but wasn’t a factor down the stretch of the game. He fouled out, recording all five fouls in a four-minute and 37 second stretch. In the final 14:06, he recorded just four points after having 17 until that point.

For a stretch he was able to carry a struggling Orange offense, but he eventually fell under the same spell as everyone else.

Amar Alibegovic said St. John’s tried to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible in the second half, and for most part, it worked.

“We knew with him controlling the ball, especially in the first half, we had some trouble and we would scramble a lot,” Alibegovic said. “We just tried to get the ball out of his hands and make the other players handle. Most of them are more catch and shoot guys, and really good shooters. And he would create for them, so we just tried to get the ball out of his hands.”

3. Frank Howard seems to be the backup point guard

Hopkins hasn’t acknowledged as much, but actions always speak louder than words. Joseph played three minutes today, recording just one block for his only statistic. And Howard, who got his first chance in big-time minutes against Georgetown a week ago, once again played in the second half.

Howard scored three points on one-of-three shooting from the field and dished out two assists to go with his one rebound and no turnovers.

His shooting can sometimes be combined with his reckless abandon, but Syracuse has shown the ability to play better with him on the court. And Joseph, a player that was highly touted to be much improved coming into the season, is averaging 7.6 minutes per game and just 3.7 with Hopkins in charge.

Published on December 13, 2015 at 4:43 pm