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After losing to NC State on the road Tuesday for its fourth straight loss, Syracuse returned home to host Notre Dame. SU’s loss to the Wolfpack marked a new low of the Adrian Autry era, giving the program its first losing streak longer than three games since Autry took over as head coach.

In a possible make-or-break year for the third-year head coach, the Orange’s hopes of snapping a four-year NCAA Tournament drought — their longest spell in over five decades — are slim. Syracuse’s March Madness resume ranks 80th in the country, and it is “Not Close” to receiving an at-large bid, per EvanMiya.

For the Orange to keep their bleak hopes of making a March Madness return alive, it had to start by beating Notre Dame at home. And when Syracuse needed it most, it stepped up with a commanding 86-72 win.

The Orange led for all but 1:35, clinching their first victory in nearly three minutes. Though Donnie Freeman came off the bench and was relatively silent, Nate Kingz dropped a game-high 28 points. His five 3-point makes also helped SU outscore ND 10-6 from beyond the arc.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (13-9, 4-5 ACC) losing-streak-breaking victory over Notre Dame (11-11, 2-7 ACC):

Donnie Freeman off the bench

Looking for a change of pace, Syracuse inserted Sadiq White Jr. into the starting lineup against NC State. White fouled out across 10 minutes without scoring, but Autry praised him for his effort postgame.

“He was the only one that was trying,” Autry said. The head coach walked back on that statement a few seconds later, saying, “Not trying … I thought he did a decent enough job of trying to keep some length on (Darrion) Williams and Quadir (Copeland).”

Autry ended his press conference with: “We gotta look at everything. Everything is on the table.”

Everything on the table, it turns out, includes bringing your best player off the bench. Freeman entered Saturday averaging 19.2 points and 7.4 rebounds, fresh off a 24-point, 10-rebound double-double on Tuesday.

It took Freeman around 14 minutes to score his first points, which came at the rim. Those were his only points of the half before scoring just five the rest of the way, shooting 1-of-4 from the field. While White received the starting nod, he played just 19 minutes, notching five points and six rebounds.

With Freeman not shouldering the scoring load, Kingz stepped up with 28 points while shooting 5–of-10 from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Starling added 21 and William Kyle III had 10.

Freeman enters, SU gets a “kill shot”

The term “kill shot” was popularized by analytics expert Evan Miyakawa (the founder of EvanMiya) and is classified as a scoring run where a team scores 10 or more unanswered points, effectively “killing” the opponent’s momentum.

After White picked up his second foul at the 12:02 mark, Freeman entered as SU’s first substitute with Garrett Sundra at the charity stripe. Sundra split his attempts, tying the score 12-12.

On the Orange’s first offensive possession with Freeman on the court, Kingz drained a 3-pointer. Following an ND miss, Starling drained a triple, giving the Orange an 18-12 lead. The Fighting Irish tried answering with a 3, but Freeman corralled the miss. It helped lead to another Starling triple.

Though Syracuse notched another stop, it couldn’t clinch the “kill” after Freeman missed a 3-pointer — his first shot of the game. However, after the commercial timeout, Naithan George registered a steal, leading to a fastbreak that resulted in Kiyan Anthony being fouled near the rim. The freshman then made two free throws, giving SU a 23-13 lead with 9:34 remaining in the half.

Notre Dame ended the run on the ensuing possession, but the “kill shot” helped Syracuse command a 40-31 lead at the half before closing out a 14-point win.

J.J. Starling shines in revenge game

When Starling committed to Notre Dame, the program probably envisioned him having performance like this: 21 points and five assists while shooting 9-of-13 from the field and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. The Fighting Irish probably didn’t envision that coming against them, though.

While becoming a McDonald’s All-American in high school, Starling — who is from nearby Baldwinsville and played at Baker High School for part of his high school career — committed to ND over offers from programs including Syracuse, Duke, Stanford and Northwestern.

But after averaging 11.2 points across an injury-ridden season and head coach veteran Mike Brey leaving the program after 23 years, Starling entered the transfer portal. Within 24 hours, he committed to the Orange.

Playing against his former program is nothing new for Starling, now in his third season with the Orange. Barring a meeting in the ACC Tournament, Saturday is the last time he’ll face the Fighting Irish.

He started it by making all seven of his first-half shots, including three 3-pointers, to give him 17 points while also adding five assists. Despite the strong opening half, it took Starling two shot attempts and nine minutes to score his first point of the second half — coming on a floater around the 11:30 mark.

Starling didn’t score until the final minute of the game, before driving in and converting a layup. On the play, which was deemed a flagrant foul, Starling appeared to suffer an injury and checked out for the remainder of the contest.

Syracuse wins the second half

While the “kill shot” gave Syracuse some breathing room, it still had 20 minutes where it needed to protect a nine-point lead. It’s not necessarily a daunting task against a similarly-rated team while at home, but the Orange — who have only won the final 20 minutes once in ACC play — have struggled drastically in second halves.

SU kept its lead around 10 throughout the first seven minutes of the second half, but ND’s Cole Certa drained a 3-pointer off of a broken play that cut the score to 52-44. While it seemed like that 3 could’ve started a run, Certa was called for a technical foul for his celebration afterward. It led to Freeman draining two free throws before Kingz poured in his fourth of five 3-pointers, which extended SU’s lead to a game-high 13 points at the 12:45 mark.

Notre Dame’s Jalen Haralson rattled off seven of his team-high 26 points over the next minute to keep the Fighting Irish afloat, but Syracuse’s lead remained at least at nine points until the seven-minute mark. That’s when a Certa transition 3-pointer following a Freeman turnover cut the score to 66-60.

Unlike recent games, though, Syracuse didn’t let that spiral, as Kingz drilled a 3-pointer to answer back at the 6:30 mark. That kick-started a 9-0 run, which was capped by White getting out in transition after George — who notched 10 assists with no turnovers — fed him after picking Haralson’s pocket. White’s score gave the Orange a 15-point lead, 75-60, which was their largest of the game.

Haralson stopped the run by getting inside for a layup at the 4:29 mark, and over the next two minutes, Notre Dame cut SU’s advantage to single digits at 77-68. Once again, when Syracuse needed someone to step up, it was Kingz who got free on a fastbreak and slammed home an alley-oop while getting fouled.

After the made free throw, Kingz gave the Orange an 80-68 lead with less than two minutes remaining. From there, SU cruised to a 14-point win, marking its second time winning the second half in ACC play.

Published on January 31, 2026 at 8:16 pm
Contact Justin: justingirshon@gmail.com | @JustinGirshon