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INDIANAPOLIS – When Sean McNeil hit a 3 with 9:47 to play, West Virginia had its first lead of the game. The Mountaineers surged in the second half to erase a 14-point deficit and were ready to take advantage of Syracuse’s foul trouble.

From then on, Buddy Boeheim took over the game, the 2-3 zone tightened up, and the Orange avoided a second-half collapse to West Virginia to advance to its third Sweet 16 in six years. The Orange came flying out of the start on Sunday as Joe Girard III scored 12 first-half points and helped SU build a 14-point lead that was trimmed to six by half.

As McNeil lit up the Orange’s zone for 3s and helped WVU retake the lead in the second half, Buddy saved Syracuse with another dominant offensive showing and 25 points as the Orange (18-9, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) beat West Virginia (19-10, 11-6 Big 12), 75-72 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Here are three takeaways from the Orange’s victory.

Syracuse battles foul trouble in the second half

For most of the season, Jim Boeheim said that Marek Dolezaj has been the Orange’s only center who can contribute. Even though that’s changed down the stretch with Jesse Edwards’ emergence, Dolezaj has been able to stay out of foul trouble in almost every game this season.

Against a physical WVU front court, Dolezaj picked up his third foul on the final possession of the first half, and Boeheim had to make a decision on how to manage his senior center. Boeheim started him in the second half, a move that appeared to work as Dolezaj hit a free-throw line jumper to open the scoring. He avoided foul trouble on the defensive end, but picked up his fourth foul with 14:56 to play. 

Boeheim put in Edwards, who only had two fouls at the time. He shined defensively against the Aztecs on Friday, but West Virginia was a much tougher challenge with its elite offensive rebounding unit and All-Big 12 first selection Derek Culver in the middle. Edwards then committed two fouls in the next 24 seconds on the same West Virginia possession — one while fighting for a defensive rebound and the second on a WVU player driving to the basket. 

As good as Edwards was on Friday night, his two quick fouls gave Boeheim no choice but to go back to Dolezaj with four fouls. The senior center never picked up his fifth foul, though, and helped Syracuse on the defensive glass, while turning in one of his best offensive performances of the season with 12 points, six rebounds and five assists. 

The Mountaineers won the rebounding battle in the second half, 22-15. 

Offense shows it can produce when Buddy is misfiring in 1st half

Buddy’s offense carried the Orange against Virginia in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals and propelled SU in the win against San Diego State in the first round. Buddy was one of the hottest shooters in the country entering Sunday, and the Mountaineers keyed their defense in on him. West Virginia’s defense held Buddy to 1-of-6 from the field and 1-of-5 from 3 in the opening 20 minutes. After Buddy found himself wide open and drilled his opening shot off the half, it appeared Buddy would continue his shooting form from the last few games.

He pulled up somewhat contested again from just inside the 3-point line and missed off the front of the rim. He came off a screen and launched a 3 from a few feet behind the line, but missed short. Buddy struggled to get his shooting rhythm in the opening frame, but the Orange’s offense had no issues carving open West Virginia. The Mountaineers’ aggressive ball pressure defense didn’t force enough turnovers to compensate for the open looks they allowed. Girard made four 3s, while Dolezaj and Quincy Guerrier were able to finish around the rim for six and seven points, respectively, in the opening half. 

Syracuse opened up a 30-16 first half lead in a different way than they did against SDSU. Instead of Buddy, the Orange’s entire offense – the most efficient its been since 2011-12 – propelled Syracuse to a halftime lead.

The second half featured a return to the recent norm for Buddy, who propelled the Orange into the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Buddy scored 22 second half points on 7-of-11 shooting. 

Another quiet night for Alan Griffin

When Griffin hit his first 3 of the night, it appeared that the Orange might have a different version of Griffin than they had on Friday against SDSU. Griffin had an up-and-down first year with Syracuse, ranging from elite defensive performances to quiet shooting nights to carrying the Orange’s offense at times.

Griffin has had less leeway with Boeheim since the emergence of Robert Braswell off the bench down the stretch run of the season, though. When Griffin has taken ill-advised contested 3s, as he did once early in the second half, Boeheim has pulled him from the game and inserted Braswell. Braswell has been better defensively and improved his shooting in recent weeks. After that Griffin miss, Boeheim put his arms out to his side and yelled at Griffin. He finished with three points on 1-of-4 shooting in 11 minutes. His foul trouble may have played a role in the limited minutes, but he did not play in the final 16 minutes of the game. 

At the end of the game, as Syracuse tried to run out the clock and make free throws, Griffin was not on the court. In the end, Boeheim stuck with Richmond, Girard and Buddy together in the backcourt for dribbling and possession. Even though Griffin is the Orange’s best free throw shooter and one of the best in the conference, Boeheim went to Braswell over him down the stretch.

Published on March 21, 2021 at 7:34 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo