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Joe Girard III pumped his left arm with the shot clock winding down, dribbled two steps left and launched a 3-pointer over Dante Harris. Syracuse’s lead, at one point double-digits, had shrunk to five. Georgetown’s made shots had started to mitigate its turnovers.

But Girard’s shot gave the Orange enough breathing room with just over one minute left in the second half. SU defeated the Hoyas 74-69, behind 21 points from Buddy Boeheim and 18 from Girard. Syracuse nearly blew a double-digit halftime lead for the second time this week but held on to beat Georgetown for the 52nd time in the rivalry between the two schools.

Here are three takeaways from the Orange’s win:

Abandoning the high-low

Georgetown found early success using an offensive set that revolved around Jahvon Blair, Jamorko Pickett and Qudus Wahab. Two of the Hoyas’ first five possessions ended in easy dunks for Wahab, who slid behind Marek Dolezaj at the bottom of Syracuse’s 2-3 zone. On the second basket, Blair’s pass skipped through everybody in the paint — including a pair of SU defenders — to reach Wahab underneath.

And with 14:30 left in the opening half, Wahab slipped into an opening and drew a foul on Alan Griffin, extending an early Georgetown lead to four.

Then, the Hoyas strayed away from that. Their efficient entry pass at the high post turned into 3-pointers that were settled for. Boeheim and Girard tightened their weak-side slide at the top of the zone just enough to close that passing window, forcing Georgetown to turn to outside shooters. The Hoyas took 18 shots from behind the arc in the first half and made just five.

Syracuse continued to take away that entry pass and mitigate any resulting damage in the second half, for the most part. Pickett finished a slam dunk underneath to trim the Orange’s lead to 53-41, but as Boeheim and SU started to connect on 3-pointers, that, in turn, forced the Hoyas to take more, too.

Responsive run

Down the stretch on Wednesday, when the Orange blew an 18-point lead to Pittsburgh, Syracuse’s shot selection erased any possibility of halting the momentum switch. Griffin missed three 3-pointers in the final three minutes, Girard missed a long shot and the Orange lost any offensive momentum.

But Saturday, Syracuse closed the first half on a 16-3 clip, flipping a Georgetown run into one of its own and building a lead that withstood the final 20 minutes. Syracuse started slow from behind the arc for the fourth straight game, but Girard was fouled while making a 3 to convert on the four-point play.

Syracuse finished the half with a transition basket from Griffin and a Boeheim up-and-under.

Flipping the glass

Griffin jumped toward the right block as Robert Braswell’s shot bounced off, grabbing the ball and resetting the Syracuse offense. Eventually, Girard hit a 3-pointer to give Syracuse a five-point lead.

After getting out-rebounded by 16 in its loss to Pittsburgh — and having poor interior performances throughout Bourama Sidibe’s absence — Syracuse secured 38 rebounds total and 12 offensive boards, six and five more than Georgetown, respectively.

But Syracuse’s rebounding again took a hit after Quincy Guerrier picked up his fourth foul. It’s the second straight game that Syracuse had to play key second-half minutes without Guerrier while he was on the bench with four fouls. And it allowed the Hoyas to continue clawing back, not reaching a point, even after SU hit key shots, where the game was out of reach.

Guerrier’s foul trouble and Griffin’s defensive struggles gave expanded minutes to Braswell, with head coach Jim Boeheim turning to the redshirt sophomore over freshman Woody Newton for the second consecutive game. 

And when Girard turned the ball over with two minutes left, dribbling down the shot clock with two minutes left, it was Braswell who came up with a steal and gave Syracuse possession back.

Published on January 9, 2021 at 9:34 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew