A one-man-army effort fell short and ‘Cuse drops back below .500
Photo by Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
CLEMSON, S.C. - For at least a few minutes, the Syracuse Orange kept pace with their opponent on Wednesday night - a rare sight in the start of many contests this season.
Ultimately though, they couldn’t capitalize on a 25-point night by J.J. Starling, as the Clemson Tigers settled in and tore through their defense to the tune of an 86-72 win at the Littlejohn Coliseum. Brad Brownell’s squad moves to 8-1 in the ACC and 11-1 on their home court, while Adrian Autry’s team falls to 9-10 on the season and 3-5 in conference play.
The deciding factor Wednesday night was points off turnovers: Clemson had 19 off 14 opportunities, all of which they converted before Syracuse got their meager four off seven. Four Tiger starters finished the game in double figures, and the team shot 31/55 overall and 9/20 from deep. Eddie Lampkin was second on SU with 14 points and nine rebounds, which ended his double-double streak.
After mutual misses to begin the game, Syracuse scored first on a mid-range jumper from Starling. Clemson countered with an open floater by Chase Hunter in the paint - get used to reading that name, as he’d lead the Tigers with 23 points on a 7/13, 4/7 clip.
Starling commanded the Orange offense early, taking the space he was given to contribute nine of their first 12 points. The other three came from Jyare Davis at the arc, and they led by three at the first media timeout.
The home squad started to lock down after that. An errant Justin Taylor pass let Hunter grab a steal and run down for a dunk and Clemson’s first lead of the night, 15-14 at 12:37. Shortly after another J.J. bucket, Hunter nailed his first three of the night, Petar Majstorovic turned it over again, and Jaeden Zackery lobbed it off the board and in for a four-point lead.
Adrian Autry took his first timeout of the night, but it didn’t stop the Tigers’ momentum. They proceeded to go on a 16-5 out of the timeout, with a Kyle Cuffe three and Chris Bell jumper being the only resistance.
After another timeout by Red, Starling continued his hot night with a pair of threes from the top of the key, but the rest of the Orange did next to nothing to support him, going only 2/9 on layups and dunks in the half. They ended up heading into the locker room trailing 48-29 and on a 10-point downswing.
Syracuse trailed by as much as 24 in this one, closing the gap more in garbage time but showing few signs of life before that point. Elijah Moore took a deep shot more out of frustration than anything else at the end, and it went through the net... before being ruled off, which pretty perfectly encapsulates what kind of night it was for most of the guys wearing Orange.
Clemson’s other standout was Viktor Lakhin, who made his final four shots of the night and finished with 16 points and 10 boards.
The Orange return to the Dome Saturday to host Pitt. It’s an early 12:30 tip-off and the game will once again be broadcast on ACCN.
