Syracuse vanquishes consistency issues, pulls away late to dominate Stonehill
In its final nonconference game, Syracuse overcame its consistency issues with a dominant 25-7 second-half run to defeat Stonehill. Christian Calabrese | Staff Photographer
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For about 31 minutes, Syracuse’s Monday night matchup against Stonehill played out exactly like its previous three.
The Orange were outrebounded 21-15 at the break. They were listless from the charity stripe, worsening their already-poor 60% free throw shooting percentage by making just nine of their 21 attempts at that point. And, yet again, they just couldn’t seem to pull away from a mid-major opponent — just as they had failed to do against Hofstra, Mercyhurst and Northeastern.
At that point, SU’s lead was only 52-41. It had teetered between double and single digits for the majority of the game. And while the Skyhawks never truly came close to threatening the Orange’s chances at victory, they had certainly made it far closer than they should’ve.
Until it wasn’t. After Trenton Ruth’s layup at the 8:51 mark cut Stonehill’s deficit to 11, the Skyhawks proceeded to score just seven more points. Syracuse, on the other hand, tallied up 25. In that nine-minute stretch, the Orange (9-4, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) finally overcame their longstanding consistency issues, rising above their competition to secure a dominant 77-48 win over Stonehill (3-10, 0-0 Northeast).
“It means a lot,” Syracuse guard J.J. Starling said postgame on ACC Network Extra. “Finally put it together for 40 minutes, and be able to handle business and do what we’re supposed to do.”
If it wasn’t for Starling, SU might have never conquered those issues before it started conference play. Following a nine-point performance against Northeastern — his lowest point total since Nov. 3 — he exploded for a season-high 20 to topple the Skyhawks.
He started the run by splitting a pair of free throws, pushing Syracuse’s lead to 53-41. From that point on, he put the clamps down on Stonehill’s lineup alongside the rest of the Orange.
Approximately two minutes after Ruth’s layup, Hermann Koffi laced a triple to make it 59-45 Syracuse. That would be the last field goal Koffi — or any Skyhawk, for that matter — would score for the rest of the game.
“Tonight, in the second half in particular, our defense really stepped up,” SU head coach Adrian Autry said. “It all starts with our defense, and I thought that was the difference.”
Stonehill’s offensive possessions followed a similar script toward the end of the game. The ball would be inbounded to Koffi or Rex Sunderland, and the rest of the Skyhawks would stand around the perimeter, hoping to somehow luck into an open 3-point attempt.
Sometimes, they’d drive into the paint to try and create an advantage, but that never went anywhere. Sadiq White Jr., William Kyle III and Akir Souare all finished with three blocks, repeatedly stuffing the Skyhawks at the rim.
“Sadiq White, I thought, was really big today,” Autry said. “Got on the glass, finished around the rim, really was disruptive on defense.”
On the offensive end, those stops created even more opportunities for SU. After Koffi’s triple, Kingz responded with one of his own, stretching the Orange’s lead to 17. Then, on Stonehill’s next offensive possession, Kingz victimized Koffi on the defensive end, swatting his 3-point attempt.
The ball came out to Starling, who drove to the other end of the court and rolled in a fast break layup to make it 64-45 Syracuse.
“It got a little close, and then we really kind of locked down and turned them over, and got out in transition,” Autry said postgame.
Davante Hackett tried to get things going for Stonehill on the offensive end, but he had no such luck. George picked his pocket, and the ball subsequently found White Jr. for a layup.
He missed it, though, and if the game had followed the same script as the first half, it would’ve been easy to expect the Skyhawks to snag the defensive rebound. But it wasn’t the first half anymore. Now, SU was playing as if it had found new life.
Kingz instead grabbed the board and finished his own mid-range jumper to push Syracuse’s lead to 21 points. It was the first time SU had held a 20-point lead since Nov. 15, when the Orange defeated Drexel 80-50.
The game snowballed from there. SU led by as many as 31 down the stretch and only saw the advantage dwindle to 29 when Charlie Diamantis hit two free throws with 20 seconds left. It was utter domination, the likes of which Autry hadn’t seen from his team in a while.
Autry wants to see his team play a complete 40 minutes, the kind of performance that leaves his players gassed by the final buzzer. And he wants them to repeat it, again and again and again, until it becomes second nature.
The Orange aren’t there yet. He knows that. Syracuse allowed far too many second-chance points in the first half and let the Skyhawks hang around for far longer than they should against a team with SU’s talent.
But in Autry’s eyes, his team gets closer and closer to that goal with each passing game. And with ACC play on the horizon, he can only hope the Orange will get there by then.
“We’re still not there,” Autry said. “But we’re gonna keep trying for it.”
