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With Syracuse holding a 20-point lead over UAlbany with 10 minutes remaining in the game, it seemed like head coach Adrian Autry would finally have a stress-free ending to a home game.
While SU’s 4-0 record indicated it had a perfect start to the season at the JMA Wireless Dome, the Orange were anything but that. Late in their contests against Le Moyne, Colgate, Youngstown State and Cornell, Autry had to anxiously watch from the sidelines to see if his team would hold on.
Against the Great Danes, he again became agitated in the final minutes. The Orange saw their lead slip to 11 with two minutes to play and couldn’t put the stamp on their first blowout win of the season. But as the buzzer sounded, Autry again walked down the sidelines to shake the opposing coach’s hand a winner.
Following back-to-back embarrassing road losses to Tennessee and Notre Dame, Syracuse (5-4, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated UAlbany (6-5, 0-0 America East) 102-85 for its largest win of the season. The Orange held a double-digit halftime lead for the second time this season, though they couldn’t hold onto an over 20-point second-half advantage. It’s SU’s first win since leading scoring J.J. Starling was ruled out indefinitely with a broken left hand.
Like in many of its games this season, Syracuse didn’t come firing out of the gates. The Orange instead saw UAlbany get out to an early lead and wrestled with it for the game’s first eight minutes.
However, coming out of the under-12 timeout, the Orange excelled — something they’ve rarely done in the first half. Though he came off the bench for the first time this season due to a non-disciplinary personal reason, Donnie Freeman slammed home his first points on Jaquan Carlos’ third of a season-high 12 assists to give SU a 16-14 lead. Freeman scored 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting in just 23 minutes.
Defensively, the Orange forced a Justin Neely turnover, which led to Lucas Taylor doubling their lead with a made jumper on the other end. The Great Danes made a pair of 3-pointers early on, but a miss from Kheni Briggs led to a Freeman rebound before he got SU out in transition. Carlos, who scored a season-high 12 points after averaging 4.4 points since transferring from Hofstra, tacked on an easy layup, forcing UAlbany to call a timeout while trailing 20-14 at the 10:31 mark.
Syracuse kept its foot on the gas following the break largely because of Kyle Cuffe Jr. The junior guard played sparingly across the Orange’s first six games but has seen his minutes increase in Starling’s absence. In his first five minutes off the bench, Cuffe was a perfect 3-of-3 from the floor while nailing two free throws.
Most importantly, he got SU going from behind the arc. Syracuse was 0-for-9 from 3 in its loss on Saturday against Notre Dame, the first time it didn’t make a triple in over a decade. The Orange again struggled out of the gates against UAlbany, missing two 3-pointers through 10 minutes.
But after Elijah Moore — who made his first career start after scoring 19 and 24 points, respectively, against Cornell and Tennessee — scored his fourth of just six points, and the Great Danes responded with a pair of made free throws, Cuffe was left open in the right corner. He drew nylon, extending SU’s lead to 25-16 at the 9:10 mark. The guard finished the game with a season-high 10 points.
Kacper Klaczek quickly responded with a triple of his own before inside buckets from Freeman and Petar Majstorovic helped the Orange’s lead extend to double digits. A minute and a half after cashing in from the right corner, Cuffe was again left alone. He drilled another 3 from the same area, giving Syracuse a 32-19 lead.
The Great Danes made several pushes to cut their halftime deficit into single digits but were unsuccessful. First, two made free throws and a contested layup from Cuffe pushed SU’s lead to 38-28 with four minutes left in the half. A Briggs jumper cut UAlbany deficit to eight with a minute remaining, yet Eddie Lampkin Jr.’s first points and a Chris Bell and-one gave the Orange a 47-34 halftime lead.
Syracuse didn’t dominate out of the break but steadily saw its lead increase. Back-to-back inside scores from Jyáre Davis, who started in Freeman’s place and scored 15 points after pouring in 20 against Notre Dame, lifted SU’s advantage to 53-38 three minutes into the second half.
Before the under-16 minute timeout, close makes from Lampkin and Carlos gave SU a 57-40 lead. After the timeout, SU got out to a 20-plus lead for the first time this year. Freeman, who made 15.8% of his triples entering the contest, canned a right-wing 3 after the Great Danes’ DeMarr Langford Jr. hit one on the prior possession.
Following a Byron Joshua, UAlbany’s leading scorer who was held to just five points, miss, Freeman pulled down the rebound and got the Orange in transition. First, he passed the ball to Bell in the corner. Bell quickly gave the ball to a cutting Moore, who made an extra pass to Majstorovic before the freshman converted an easy 2. Trailing 62-41 six minutes into the half, UAlbany called a timeout.
However, similar to its game against the Big Red, SU couldn’t slam the door shut. While the teams mostly traded baskets, the Great Danes cut their deficit down to 11 with five minutes to play. Freeman then nailed a 3 to give Syracuse life before he slammed home his 17th point. Then, he canned his career-high fourth 3-pointer.
Still, UAlbany wouldn’t go away, as it answered each of Freeman’s scores. With two minutes remaining, its deficit still sat at 11. However, anchored by Bell scoring six of his 18 points, the Orange snapped their two-game losing streak with a 102-85 win.
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