Syracuse men’s basketball: four takeaways from dominant win over Georgetown

Hot shooting from an unlikely source

In their 99th meeting between the two schools, the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team took down the Georgetown Hoyas 80-68 on Saturday afternoon. Head coach Adrian Autry had his team wide awake for an 11:30 a.m. tip, and Judah Mintz and company did the rest. Let’s get to the takeaways…

J.J. the Star(ling) shooter

The Baldwinsville native broke out of his cold-shooting spell, exploding for a season-high 21 points while knocking down all three of his three-point attempts. He made the same amount of threes today as he did over his first 24 attempts this season. The sophomore also provided much-needed support for Judah Mintz, who took a breather after tallying 20 points early in the second half. Starling also looked strong in the mid-range game, rising up and knocking down multiple contested jumpers with unwavering confidence. This is the Starling head coach Adrian Autry envisioned when recruiting the former five-star back to Central New York.

Quadir Copeland takeover

The sophomore exploded off the bench with a career-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting. Copeland’s unmatched energy and knack for the ball fired up the Syracuse bench. He converted tough-finish after tough-finish under the basket to keep the Orange in front, in addition to four rebounds and an assist, block and steal. The game could’ve been much closer with Mintz on the bench and Georgetown within seven midway through the second half, but Copeland’s athleticism kept SU in front.

Keeping the Hoyas at bay from three-point range

SU took its defensive pressure up a notch on the perimeter, forcing Georgetown to shoot a season-low 19.2 percent from the three-point line. Many of these attempts were not even close, as Georgetown was forced to chuck up multiple deep threes to avoid a shot clock violation. Jayden Epps and Jay Heath, both over 40-percent shooters coming in, went a combined 2-for-14 from range, opening the door for the Orange.

Crashing the offensive glass

Syracuse must’ve been sick and tired of me saying how great Georgetown’s offensive rebounding was. The Orange took a page out of the Hoyas’ book, racking up 11 offensive boards that turned into 12 second-chance points. Maliq Brown, Quadir Copeland and even Mounir Hima controlled the glass with multiple offensive rebounds. One-handed flushes by Brown and Copeland silenced the Georgetown faithful and put an exclamation point on a dominant win.

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What were your takeaways from today’s game? Let us know in the comments.