Swoon Secures Syracuse Shellacking
Georgetown trekked northward with hopes of taking down historical rival Syracuse, yesterday. For six and a half minutes, the goal was reachable, even likely, as Pat Ewing's team led 17-6 at that point.
As is the case for these Hoyas, no lead is seemingly safe; the Orange went on a 12-zip run, eventually flipping the score advantage of 11 to themselves by halftime. Despite in second half play falling behind even further at 50-34 within the back stanza's first minute, the Hoyas whittled that deficit to seven with just over five minutes to play. Nevertheless they never fully recovered, eventually falling 83-64 at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, NY.
How did Ewing explain his team's latest swoon?
"Turnovers" lamented Ewing afterward, when asked that question. "Turnovers kicked us in the butt. We made too many turnovers". For the contest, G'Town was credited with 15.
Things initiated with his team "making shots, making the right play", and we went up, we went up 11. We started turning the ball over. Then stopped getting the ball into the middle of their zone to make plays. Everybody was trying to do it on their own".
Per Ewing, those cough ups "led to them getting fast break points" - many were of the live ball variety - "and this (Syracuse) is a team that does not run. They had 14 fast break points...24 points off our turnovers".
Syracuse enjoyed an impressive 20 points and 11 game tops-tying rebounds from senior center Jessie Edwards, prompting Ewing to applaud his development. The coach, Georgetown's best player ever, also likened Edwards' play, including blocking three point shots after being in the lane, to his personal All American work while playing in Blue and Gray.
Rookie guard Judah Mintz followed at 16 points and 10 contest best assists for Syracuse. Ewing, who recruited him at D.C.'s Gonzaga, recognized Mintz is athletic and knows how to use it. Fifteen and 13 points were contributed by senior guard Joe Girard and sophomore wing Benny Williams, respectively. The Hoyas attempted to lure Williams from their backyard also, this time out of
St. Andrews (MD). .
As a unit, head coach Jim Boeheim's guys managed 50 percent overall shooting, 21.4% on three balls. Their impressive 20-21 (95.2%) free throw mark touches upon another Blue and Grey issue - The Hoyas' lost two players to foul disqualification.
Sophomore guard Primo Spears paced all scorers with 21 points for G'Town. Junior guard Jay Heath had 14 points, while senior pivot Qudus Wahab logged 10 points and like his Syracuse counterpart Edwards pulled down 11 caroms, before fouling out.
Ewing's guys tickled the twine at 37.3% from the field, 24% from long distance.
One guy that didn't meet his expectations was Brandon Murray. Coming into the game, Murray averaged 16 points per game, yet accounted for just eight, and a pair of rebounds against 'Cuse. Normally a 37/38 minute per game player, referee whistles diminished his clock-time to 22 minutes, before racking up his fifth and final infraction.
"When your best player Brandon Murray, is saddled with foul troubles...it's hard to win for us" admitted Ewing. "We need him on the floor to be productive", in addition to the entire roster "if we're going to win".
Ewing et al will need certainly more from everyone next week when Big EAST play starts for Georgetown, now 5-6 on the season. Friday, December 16th is the day, Capital One Arena stands as the spot, 630p EST the time.
Syracuse (6-4), welcomes Monmouth, tomorrow, for an 8p EST tip.