Syracuse men’s basketball: takeaways from win over Virginia

Orange finally hold a big lead

The Syracuse Orange gave the home fans an enjoyable evening as they closed this disappointing regular season with an 84-70 win over the Virginia Cavaliers. Let’s look at the takeaways.

Seniors Lead

Syracuse relied on their four senior starters in this game. Eddie Lampkin had 25 and 10 while hitting 11-12 from the field. Jyare Davis and Lucas Taylor added 15 points and Jaquan Carlos led the Orange with 7 assists, while doing his best job of running the offense all season.

Both Naheem McLeod and Kyle Cuffe were effective off the bench as Adrian Autry went with his starters longer than usual last night. It was nice to finally see the coaching staff divert from their substitution script and give more minutes to Taylor and Davis. Syracuse did have trouble with defense and turnovers for a stretch in the second half, but instead of taking bad shots, the Orange were patient and kept going inside to Lampkin.

Effort from Opening Tip to Final Buzzer

Defensive intensity was apparent from the jump. Virginia missed some open looks, but the Orange applied more pressure on the ball, and had urgency with their rotations. In the first half, Virginia was 1-8 from 3 and that allowed Syracuse to build a big lead. While the Cavaliers were able to work the ball inside more in the second half, the Orange defense kept them to 2-7 from deep and they avoided another late collapse.

Isaac McKneeley was held to 1-6 shooting from 3, well below his season average. It was the first time in a while that the Orange locked in on the opponent’s biggest threat and the effort paid off with a comfortable win.

Charlotte Opportunity

It’s hard to imagine this Syracuse team can go on a miracle run to get an automatic bid, but if they can match this effort it’s all fans can ask for at this point. Florida State seemed to be able to match Syracuse’s size in the only meeting as they pulled away down the stretch. It’s far from the best opening round match-up, but as the players pointed out last night, it’s a new season.

Anything short of winning the ACC Tournament and the NCAA auto-bid is going to mean this season goes down as the worst most fans can remember. But, until it’s officially over, there is still a chance and the Orange have to approach every possession with that mentality.