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Less than two weeks ago, amid Syracuse’s 25-point home loss to Duke, Jimmy Boeheim got benched. Head coach Jim Boeheim took him out for the last five minutes of the first half and a 10-minute chunk in the second, later explaining that Jimmy and Cole Swider weren’t accomplishing anything offensively. Jimmy finished with zero points in 21 minutes, his only scoreless game of the year.

“Maybe Duke’s too good defensively for them,” Boeheim speculated on Feb. 26. “Tonight, I think Duke’s just too big or too strong for them.”

Thursday, against the top-seeded Blue Devils in the quarterfinal of the ACC Tournament, Jimmy looked like a revolutionized player compared to the previous contest. He finished with a season-high 28 points behind 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. Joe Girard III tacked on 23 points, 18 of which came in the first half. Together, they bolstered an offense without Buddy Boeheim and Syracuse (16-17, 9-11 Atlantic Coast) kept pace with Duke (27-5, 16-4 ACC) until the final moments of a season-ending 88-79 defeat.

A day prior, the Orange posted an impressive 39-point victory over No. 8 seed Florida State. But Buddy, SU’s top scorer, received a one-game suspension when he gut-punched FSU’s Wyatt Wilkes after a play, meaning he was on the sidelines for the Duke contest — and what will most likely be his final game in a Syracuse jersey.

Syracuse was already the underdog. It had been crushed by Duke in the previous two contests, the only two times a Boeheim-Mike Krzyzewski matchup had been decided by over 20 points. Without Buddy on Thursday, the Blue Devils were 15-point favorites and were expected to replicate that same formula.

But Jimmy and Girard helped Syracuse keep the game very close. SU led for over 13 minutes of the contest, and led by as many as seven points.

“People counted us out,” Jimmy said postgame. “A lot of people who didn’t even give us a chance said that was Buddy’s last game before the game even started. So we used all that (as motivation), and we just couldn’t make a couple plays at the end.”

In the first half, after Jimmy scored Syracuse’s first basket, Girard started to go to work. He banked a long two-pointer off the glass for his first points. Then he swished a 3-pointer, nailed a turnaround jumper from the right wing and jumped in the lane for a steal all on consecutive plays. From there, he got fouled shooting a 3-pointer and made all three free throws. And he did it again, and made two of three more foul shots.

The personal, 10-0 run made it a one-point game and Syracuse eventually took the lead, something that Syracuse never had against Duke during the first two contests.

“Joe was off the ball. He’s really good off the ball,” Boeheim said, referencing how Symir Torrence was SU’s primary ball-handler instead of Girard.

With 1.9 seconds left in the half, Jimmy inbounded the ball to Girard in the right corner. Girard braced himself and let the 3-pointer fly, connecting to give Syracuse a four-point lead as the buzzer sounded. He raised both hands in the air, hyping up the Barclays Center crowd, and then sprinted right into the locker room tunnel.

Girard was quieter in the second half — Boeheim said he thinks Girard got tired. Girard’s only field goal-make was a clutch 3-pointer that cut Duke’s lead to 78-77 with under five minutes left.

That’s when Jimmy took over, though. He made a 3-pointer, then a jumper, and another 3-pointer out of halftime, stretching SU’s lead to as many as six points.

On his second 3-pointer of the second half, he pulled up well beyond the 3-point line and drained it. The make brought his point total to 18, and Syracuse’s lead to six points. The under-12 timeout followed immediately after, and Buddy sprinted onto the court from the sideline, grinning as well as he congratulated his brother.

“I knew I was going to have to be aggressive, missing the leading scorer in the conference, so I was trying to pick up where I could and just do everything I can on both ends,” Jimmy said.

Jimmy wasn’t done with his final collegiate basketball game either. He made sure Syracuse didn’t go quietly, unlike the first two Duke games, making a second-chance two-pointer from the baseline to cut the lead to three with six minutes left.

Syracuse’s offense didn’t lag behind until the final minutes, when it gave up a 10-0 run to end the game and its season ultimately came to an end. But compared to the 20-point and 25-point losses to Duke, the Orange’s offense came close to extending its season just a little bit longer.

“Jimmy wanted to get his little brother another game,” Boeheim said. “He did everything he could to accomplish that.”

Published on March 10, 2022 at 5:12 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16