74 - 58 The Orange right the ship just in time for ACC Tournament play.
The Syracuse Orange basketball team won a basketball game on Sunday.
Ultimately, that's all that really matters. But, it was pretty good to see SU put away a team they're supposed to put away, on the road, in a conference match-up.
It's been a while.
Jerami Grant was back (see what I did there?) in the line-up and provided 16 points and eight rebounds in SU's 74-58 victory over the Florida St. Seminoles.
C.J. Fair led the Orange with 22 points while Tyler Ennis added 16 and Rakeem Christmas had another one of those "oh THAT'S what Rakeem Christmas can potentially do" games with 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
It was a typical Syracuse basketball game. The Orange led at halftime but not by as much as they should have been. Anytime they got up to a double-digit lead, that lead evaporated. There was a point in the second half when it seemed like the entire game was slipping away. Trevor Cooney was stone cold to the point where his teammates openly ignored him despite being wide open at one point.
And then C.J. Fair, Jerami Grant and Tyler Ennis made it all better. Just like they're supposed to.
The Orange secure the No. 2 seed in the ACC Tournament, which means they'll have to wait until Friday to find out who they're playing.
Believe it or not, Syracuse also finds itself back in the No. 1 seed discussion for the NCAA Tournament. Teams like Villanova, UNC, Duke and now Virginia haven't done enough to seal up that spot, leaving the door open. If the Orange can string together another couple wins, the momentum of those other teams, whom Syracuse is 3-2 against overall, could work against them in proving the Orange are top-seed worthy.
But…we'll see. In the meantime, nice to get the win.
