Syracuse men’s basketball: takeaways from the road win over Cal

A wire to wire win…in this economy?

The Syracuse Orange (10-12, 4-7) snapped a three-game losing streak with last night’s 75-66 over the California Golden Bears.

Faster start

After falling behind 17-0 to Stanford the other night, the Orange came out and got a more intense pre-game warm-up. That certainly helped out as they got out to a 9-0 start against a Cal team missing their best score, Andrej Stojakovic. It was a strong first half for the Orange. They shot 5-9 from 3, out-scored Cal 16-2 in the paint, grabbed 7 offensive rebounds and had 6 assists as they enjoyed a 40-23 lead at the break.

Adrian Autry said it was the team’s best first half of the season and it will be important for the Orange to maintain that intensity moving forward.

Self-inflicted wounds continue

The one negative from the opening half was that the Orange committed too many fouls. Cal only shot 4-23 from the field, but they stayed in the game by going 13-16 from the line. In the second half, Syracuse got more careless with the ball (9 turnovers), and less active on offense (only 4 offensive rebounds). They also kept on fouling the Golden Bears who ended the game 14-40 from the field and 24-30 from the foul line.

Against better opponents, this is going to continue to cost the Orange so they need to find a way to play a cleaner 40 minutes.

Bench shows up

This was a true team win. All ten players who saw time last night scored. In the first half, the second unit was able to keep the double-digit lead mostly due to an active zone defense. Naheem McLeod looked like a contributor for the first time this season. Autry said McLeod has been working hard and earned those minutes the last couple of weeks.

For the game, the reserves shot 7-10 from the field and contributed eight rebounds. With how Syracuse has struggled to close games, being able to trust the bench is important. JJ Starling and Eddie Lampkin were the only Orange to play over 30 minutes and with a long flight back across the country and home games with Duke and BC this week, Syracuse will need the bench to continue to contribute.