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The comeback and the takeover came gradually. It started with 16:14 left in the second half, when Buddy Boeheim hit a jumper to trim Syracuse’s deficit to 57-43. It continued through free throws, a 3-pointer here and there, charges and fouls drawn. By the end of regulation, Buffalo’s 16-point lead had dissipated. 

And the dagger — the one UB was poised to hit for so long but eventually was the one Syracuse did — came in overtime, when Kadary Richmond kicked out to Quincy Guerrier in the corner. He sunk the 3-pointer, and Syracuse’s lead grew to six en route two minutes into overtime. “A huge 3,” head coach Jim Boeheim said postgame.

Nearly two years ago to the day, the Bulls, then ranked No. 14 in the country, came into the Carrier Dome and stunned Syracuse for the first time since 1963. On Saturday, they nearly did it again with a similar formula. Josh Mballa’s physical presence in the paint created problems SU couldn’t solve. Then, in the second half and overtime, Syracuse’s offense came to life. Four players finished with 19 or more points, led by Guerrier’s 27 and Griffin’s 24, and the Orange (6-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) recovered from that 16-point second half deficit to secure a 107-96 victory.

“We were never down in the huddles, we were just picking each other up, and we just said one stop at a time,” Buddy said after the game. “That’s what we did.”

But before Syracuse could even earn the chance for an extra five minutes after erasing the deficit, Jayvon Graves raced in transition with a chance to win the game in the final seconds. Syracuse had drawn up a play that involved an entry pass to Marek Dolezaj — looking for him to make a play like he had all game, Boeheim said — but instead Mballa’s steal set up Graves on the break. 

Graves swung the ball over one Syracuse defender, but back came Alan Griffin — the Illinois transfer tasked with stepping up in the big moments, and the one who delivered in those big ones on Saturday — to swat the ball off the backboard and force overtime.

“He made an unbelievable play, and it saved the game,” Boeheim said.

Marek Dolezaj finished with 19 points and eight rebounds in Syracuse’s narrow overtime victory over Buffalo. Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA Today Sports

That sequence almost gave the Bulls, the mid-major team, the scrappy group of 10 rotation players that played quicker and more physical than SU, a second straight win over Syracuse. The first came on Dec. 18, 2018, when the Bulls outrebounded SU 48-35 and their tight man defense forced Syracuse into 6-for-22 shooting from beyond the arc.

On Saturday, the Bulls, who play at the fifth-fastest rate in the country in terms of average possession length, opened the scoring right away when Jeenathan Williams snuck behind the bottom of Syracuse’s 2-3 zone for a backdoor up-and-under. That became a successful look the Bulls used often, especially when Mballa subbed off the bench.

Early on, Syracuse errors gave UB opportunities to build its lead. With Buddy’s 3-pointer arching toward the basket, Graves pivoted the other direction and sprinted the court. An outlet pass hit him in stride, and the UB senior finished his dunk before SU defenders recovered. After the ensuing inbounds pass, Richmond double dribbled — not while pressed, or facing any sort of pressure — and Syracuse sulked back to its sideline during the next timeout.

The Bulls continued to feed Mballa inside, with mixed results. Dolezaj drew two charges on the 6-foot-7 junior, yet he still finished with a career-high 27 points. And Syracuse’s answer to UB’s size leaned up against the Dunn Tire ad sign during warmups, wearing a hoodie and olive green sweatpants: Bourama Sidibe, out since the five-minute mark of Syracuse’s opener and out for at least another week, couldn’t guard Mballa. 

He couldn’t help when Dolezaj picked up his second foul early in the first half. Couldn’t help besides pointing from his chair and hoping someone on the court saw what he did. The Orange’s primary option when Dolezaj got into foul trouble was John Bol Ajak, and that only helped UB’s lead grow.

“We do need more of a presence out there,” Boeheim said. “John wasn’t able to do that in the first half. We’re looking at Bourama, we’re looking at Frank maybe to come in and help us a little bit. But that’s stuff we have to work through.”

The Orange’s 3-pointer drought that started against Northeastern and continued against UB extended to 23 misses before Guerrier snapped it in the second half. Around that time, Richmond subbed in for Joe Girard III and injected the Syracuse offense and press with new life. Richmond drove on his man and continued driving after the initial contact. And after those drives, he found secondary options that UB’s man defense hadn’t covered. That sparked the comeback.

A 10-2 run by Syracuse brought the game closer, mostly initiated by Buddy’s mid-range success. Then, Griffin hit a 3, UB called timeout and Syracuse’s balanced scoring attack started to pay off. But Mballa remained physical in the paint out of under-four timeout, scoring a layup that Dolezaj responded to at the other end.

Griffin sprinted inside and tipped in a rebound as Richmond’s shot started to rim out, putting Syracuse up three, but Ronaldo Segu connected at the other end. Richmond dribbled the ball toward Syracuse’s bench and called timeout, setting up the final play that UB foiled and Griffin saved to the game into overtime.

That’s where Syracuse gradually wore out the Bulls. Buddy added a jumper after Guerrier’s 3. Griffin and Richmond both ended UB possessions with steals. And free throw after free throw — 42 in total — built the Orange a lead of their own. Griffin grinned as he hit a pair with 45 seconds left to put them up 11. 

“We pulled out a couple games that could’ve easily gone the other way,” Boeheim said. “We could be looking at being in the middle of a horrific struggle. We have to be happy with where we are.” 

At some point, all those errors, all those struggles, could add up to a loss. It almost happened against Northeastern and again against the Bulls. It could happen on Tuesday against Notre Dame, or a week later against Wake Forest, or at some point deeper into the ACC schedule. 

Or maybe the Orange will keep scraping by — with a slowly improving and developing interior defense, with shooting that’s, at times, both spotty and unstoppable — like they did against Buffalo.

Published on December 19, 2020 at 8:39 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew