Observations from Syracuse’s exhibition win vs. Pace: White’s debut, too close a call
Sadiq White’s dunk-filled debut and Donnie Freeman’s game-high 22 points stole the show in Syracuse's exhibition win over Pace. Eli Schwartz | Staff Photographer
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Five days before Syracuse’s 2025-26 opener, central New Yorkers got their first opportunity to see the Orange at home in true game action as they took on Pace University.
It was supposed to be the first game of the year boasting Syracuse’s much-anticipated freshman class — which includes Kiyan Anthony, Sadiq White and Luke Fennell. White didn’t play due to an upper-body injury in SU’s exhibition win over Buffalo last week. His status was a full-go for Wednesday’s exhibition, but minutes before tipoff, an SU Athletics spokesperson said Fennell was ruled out for precautionary injury reasons.
Syracuse faithful may have to wait before seeing its most hyped group of first-years in quite some time. But, it was still treated to a victory.
SU defeated Pace 75-57 in its final tune-up before opening the regular season versus Binghamton on Nov. 3. Though the Orange trailed for most of the first half, they eventually went on a 20-1 run late in the second half. Forward Donnie Freeman’s 22 points led SU’s scoring.
Here are some key observations from Syracuse’s second exhibition game of 2025-26 against Pace on Wednesday night in the Dome:
Sadiq sighting
White, a 6-foot-9 forward who committed to Syracuse as a five-star recruit in May 2024, made his unofficial debut Wednesday against the Setters. The two-way forward from IMG Academy possesses attributes of a lanky, tenacious defender while also proving to be an electric playmaker in transition during his time playing on high-level high school circuits.
He’s a heck of a dunker, too. Likely SU’s best rim rocker in years. And by the time the first half ended, the White dunk-counter sat at a whopping three.
White’s emphatic finishes at the rim highlighted his Syracuse debut, in which he closed with 14 points on 75% shooting and added four rebounds. Four of his six field goals made were dunks.
A few minutes after checking in alongside Kiyan at the 16:11 mark of the first half, White crashed downward from the free-throw line and got a feed from Kiyan. Nothing between him and the basket, White rose and threw down a ferocious two-handed jam. He hung on the rim and swung his body around for some extra oomph.
Late in the first half, a similar play took place, though this time it was Freeman finding his fellow big man on a backdoor cut, to which White hung on the rim for a little longer than last time.
He also played stout defense throughout the game, lurking for chase down blocks as if it were his job.
White checked in and out of the game and mostly played short stints after coming back from an upper-body injury. He spent a lot of his time on the bench stretching with SU’s training staff. The second half, though, saw him accumulate nine minutes and splash a corner 3 to put Syracuse up four points. He then hit another big 3 late as Syracuse materialized a large lead late.
To put it simply: It’s clear why everyone within Syracuse’s program is raving about White’s future with the program.
Dissecting Autry’s lineups
Third-year head coach Adrian Autry threw out 16 different lineups versus the Setters. None of them dominated, and none of them stunk. Still, no group of five Autry put out played very cohesively against Pace.
His starting five — Naithan George, J.J. Starling, Nate Kingz, Freeman and William Kyle III — played fine. Starling had a nice moment early where he jumped a passing lane at the top of the key and took the ball coast to coast for an easy lay-in. The Orange also made a concerted effort to get the ball inside to Freeman while sporting this alignment.
But the entire starting lineup struggled to shoot 3s, finishing a combined 2-for-11, and a few times, Kyle was the victim of bully ball from the Setters’ big men. Their defense was also overall poor. Pace received way too many open looks and often made the Orange pay.
When SU’s bench group — Kiyan, Tyler Betsey, Bryce Zephir, White, Akir Souare — entered just under four minutes into the first half, the kids got to work. Kiyan and White connected for an instant dunk, then attempted an alley-oop, which went awry but would’ve been an absurd slam by White if successful. While this group of five looked relatively in sync offensively, it repeatedly got killed by Pace at the perimeter and also couldn’t rebound for the life of itself.
Yet of all Autry’s different lineups Wednesday, the most interesting was mixing the freshmen in with the starters for a look at George, Kiyan, Starling, White and Freeman. Putting White out there with Freeman as the two tallest players on the court proved to provide immense defensive pressure in the paint, and they worked off each other well on the offensive end with feeds around the rim.
But the backcourt was a bit clunky when throwing Kiyan in there with George and Starling. Ball movement was sometimes awkward with three very ball-dominant players out there at once. They often stood still along the perimeter and passed around as White and Freeman moved around inside. And Kiyan coughed up a turnover in this alignment.
The prodigal son returns
It would be ridiculous not to mention how Kiyan did in his first-career game within the confines of the arena where his father, Carmelo Anthony, first became a superstar. After playing 18 minutes last Saturday against Buffalo and totaling 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting, Kiyan checked into Wednesday’s contest at the 16:11 mark of the first half.
A few seconds later, he drained a step back 3-pointer from the left wing.
Yeah, the kid’s pretty good.
Kiyan finished Wednesday’s game with nine points in 17 minutes. His defense, while lacking explosive moments and steals, was never a glaring issue. His abilities as a floor general, though, weren’t incredibly strong as he turned the ball over three times. The early 3-pointer remained his best moment from the night.
He had one costly turnover as the primary ball-handler alongside Starling in the backcourt — which, albeit, will be a rare backcourt pairing this season with George on the roster as its top point guard. But Kiyan’s court vision was palpable, particularly on feeds inside to White and Freeman, and he showed off solid ability to take it to the rack on an and-1 layup with 11:08 left in the second half.
Regardless, as Carmelo sat at the scorer’s table intently watching his son play, the Hall of Famer likely took extensive mental notes on what Kiyan needs to improve on.
Donnie on the block
With SU’s starting five in the game, Freeman stole the show as its best offensive player. He received a litany of opportunities in the post and got put-back chances on the block. He took advantage, shooting 9-for-16 with 22 points and tallying nine boards, too.
Early on, however, Freeman was jittery when he caught the ball in the paint. He was indecisive with the ball and would either force a turnaround jumper or pass the ball like it’s a hot potato when backing a Pace defender down in the post.
Freeman settled in, though. He tallied a team-high 11 points in the first half, six of which came in the paint and three off a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. He bruised his way through the Setters’ frontcourt to mostly have his way in the post and on the block.
Arguably his best play of the night came midway through the second half, where an offensive board and ensuing second-chance bucket from Freeman put the Orange ahead 48-45 on Pace.
It’s only an exhibition. But …
The Orange shouldn’t be concerned about trailing for most of the first half against Pace.
Right?
Well, they probably should. Autry obviously doesn’t coach an exhibition like he coaches a real game, but even with some experimental lineup combinations, Syracuse played out of sync.
It often settled for deep 3s and transition pull-ups instead of going inside to Freeman or White, or even just simply resetting the offense and moving guys around the half-court. It shot 42.3% from the floor in the first half and 24% from 3 overall. It got outrebounded 31-28.
Worst of all, SU only generated nine fast break points. That’s a brutal mark for Autry, who yearns for this year’s Orange squad to play fast.
Sure, Syracuse went on a huge run to close the contest. But its static, slow half-court offense and inconsistent defense were not great signs for a team looking to avoid beginning the season with consecutive underwhelming games against lowly nonconference foes — which SU infamously did in 2024-25.
Let’s face it. Autry’s job may be on the line when it’s all said and done. For him to keep it, the Orange can’t afford to play the way they played in the first half against Pace.
