Tyus Battle let a free throw go against Old Dominion and could tell it was short. He walked a few steps between him and the rim and grabbed the first-shot rebound himself. The Syracuse junior smacked the ball with his right hand in frustration.

Minutes later, SU’s leader in free-throw percentage a year ago (83.9 percent) missed the front end of a one-and-one. He slumped his shoulders, and the Orange clung onto a four-point lead.

“I guess that’s how it goes sometimes, but we have to be better at the line,” Battle said after facing ODU. “We missed 12. That’s the difference in the game.”

After misfiring on 12 free throws against Old Dominion, Syracuse (7-4) followed that up with a 5 for 13 showing from the line, its worst percentage of the season, in a loss to No. 14 Buffalo. The Orange are tied for 239th in the country, shooting 67.4 percent from the line, even though they shoot the 40th-most free throws in the country. Syracuse needs to find a remedy at the charity stripe in its final two nonconference games in the midst of a historically bad stretch, because missing free throws in Atlantic Coast Conference play could prove costly.

“We’ve gotta be able to convert those (free throws),” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said.

A year ago, Syracuse shot more than six percentage points better from the foul line than it is right now. All five of SU’s returning starters from a year ago — Battle, Frank Howard, Oshae Brissett, Marek Dolezaj and Paschal Chukwu — have shot worse from the foul line this season.

After the Orange’s loss to Old Dominion on Dec. 15, multiple players addressed foul shots as a mental issue. Battle even headed back out to the floor to shoot some extra free-throw attempts after the game. The day before that game, SU missed some foul shots in practice, Howard said, and he speculated that could carry over.

“You’ve got to go to the free throw line knowing you can make them,” SU guard Elijah Hughes said.

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Howard said he expected the Orange to shoot better at the line going forward. But after what Boeheim called two of SU’s worst practices of the year after playing ODU, Syracuse shot worse at the foul line against Buffalo.

Only twice against the Bulls did a Syracuse player step to the line and leave without a miss. The Orange squandered multiple 1-and-1 opportunities by missing their first shot, deterring SU from opportunities at extra points.

“We’re not making anything right now,” Boeheim said after the loss.

Even though Syracuse’s offense has struggled, the Orange have continued to get to the line. Before shooting a season-low 13 attempts against Buffalo, SU taken more than 17 free throws in every game.

Syracuse gave itself a recipe for defeating good teams when it traveled to Columbus and beat then-No. 16 Ohio State by 10 on Nov. 28. The Orange shot 17-for-19 from the foul line that day. But SU has compiled three of its four best shooting days at the foul line away from the Carrier Dome: at OSU and two games at Madison Square Garden in mid-November.

After SU’s loss to Old Dominion, Boeheim was baffled by the lack of free-throw chops at home.

“Playing at home, you’ve gotta make those shots,” Boeheim said. “You can’t miss 12 free throws. You just can’t do it.”

UB held the Orange out of the paint with quick perimeter defenders. For the most part, Battle, Brissett and Hughes have worked inside and created contact. But when they step to the foul line, they don’t always convert.

Brissett missed the first of two shots at the foul line in the second half on Tuesday night. Syracuse was already shooting under 50 percent at the line for the game, and those issues were partially why the Orange trailed by seven as Brissett stepped back up for his second free throw. But he shot long off the back rim, and Buffalo gathered the rebound.

As the Bulls moved the ball back up the court, Brissett hopped up and down, twice, as his foul-line woes contributed to a second-straight game slipping away from Syracuse. From that point on, the Orange didn’t shoot any more foul shots, but the Bulls made all four of theirs down the stretch, icing the win.

For Syracuse to make up for its rocky start to the season, it’ll have to find a way to make the free ones count.

“Focus. It’s completely different from practice and in-game,” Brissett said. “Practice, there’s no pressure. In a game, everybody’s watching.”

Published on December 20, 2018 at 10:19 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3