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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Syracuse opened its 2023-24 conference slate with a shellacking at the hands of Virginia, the team projected to be fourth in the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason poll.

At one point in the first half, the Orange were down 19-18 as they got balanced scoring from the starters and bench players. But the Cavaliers tightened up and went on an 18-5 run to end the half, featuring a game-high 22 points from UVA’s Isaac McKneely.

SU also struggled to break Virignia’s vaunted pack line defense. In the second half, a mixture of missing 3-pointers, turning the ball over and simply not taking enough shots cost the Orange. The aggressive UVA defense passed into the lane and Syracuse looked flustered throughout. Virginia ended up outscoring SU 47-38 in the second half. Even with a 10-0 run late in the game, the final score was the largest margin of defeat for the Orange so far this season.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s (5-3, 0-1 ACC) 84-62 loss against Virginia (7-1, 1-0 ACC):

Varying degrees of patience

Similar to Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett has his own trademark defense — the pack line defense, which emphasizes taking away interior scoring options and forcing teams to settle for outside shots. Throughout the contest, Syracuse took outside shots. But instead of being drawn into contested ones, the Orange patiently waited for open looks. While Judah Mintz could drive through the lanes, the rest of the team had to scratch and claw to get past the Cavaliers. So, players like J.J. Starling, Justin Taylor and Chris Bell drained the shot clock before chucking shots beyond the arc.

After four minutes of no points for SU, Bell worked from the top left corner and faced a double-team as the shot clock winded down. He slung a pass back out to Starling, who nailed a 3-pointer to make the score 8-7 early on.

But this ended up working against the Orange. Later in the first half, Starling threw a no-look pass that caught Quadir Copeland off guard. Taylor had the open shot, but opted to pass out, leading to an eventual miss from Starling in the left corner.

As Virginia separated itself late into the first half and early into the second, Syracuse started foregoing patience in favor of ugly contested shots. The biggest culprit was Bell, who finished the afternoon 1-for-5 shooting. With 4:35 left in the game, Bell tried a flailing 3-pointer from the corner that got blocked.

In the second half, Starling finally started to drive to the lane more, making more cuts and dribble moves and finishing as the team’s leading scorer in the game with 16 points. He had some shifty moves that resulted in made layups and free throws. But the rest of the offense struggled as Taylor, Kyle Cuffe Jr. and Bell all tried rushed 3-pointers, yet hit the rim nearly every time.

Calling Judah Mintz?

With the Orange attempting 20 3-point shots Saturday afternoon, Mintz was relegated to a rebounding and passing role. He scored his first points of the game on a free throw with a little over four minutes left in the first half. On Syracuse’s next possession, Mintz scored on a hard-contested layup to increase his point total to three.

Syracuse opted for a balanced approach, with five different players scoring at least three points in the opening half. But Mintz ended the half with a team-high five points. Virginia expected a pass for a 3-pointer, but Mintz took over and scored a layup on the open lane as time expired in the half.

The second half didn’t provide much luck for Mintz, who didn’t score any points in the final 20 minutes. Mintz had a pull-up 3-point jumper from the left wing, but the ball failed to hit the backboard, leading to UVA fans shouting “Airball!” Mintz finished with just five points, a stark contrast to his career night against LSU.

Isaac McKneely kills SU from deep

While the Orange were successful at limiting the rest of the Cavaliers from nailing 3-pointers, they seemed helpless against McKneely from beyond the arc. He finished 6-for-8 from deep, tallying all four of UVA’s 3-pointers in the first half.

He made his first 3-pointer in an immediate response to a rare Starling 3-pointer early in the contest. He then drained a 3 from the left wing to give Virginia a 17-15 lead, before nailing another from the right to move its lead up to four.

The Cavaliers embarked on an 18-7 run in the final 6:30 of the first half and McKneely played a role in nabbing rebounds and nailing 3s. After an ugly miss from Bell, Virginia moved the ball around the arc before McKneely nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key, giving the Cavaliers a 37-22 lead.

The rest of McKneely’s teammates started to feed off of his success from 3 as the rest of the Cavaliers went 8-for-12 in the second half. But that didn’t mean he didn’t get in on the fun. After the Orange failed to get a contested rebound inside, McKneely lurked at the top of the key again and nailed another 3-pointer to increase UVA’s lead to 20. All Adrian Autry could do was just stand still and hope his players would make a shot.

Mistakes compound

Although the Orange will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium and the Dean Smith Center in January, the UVA crowd relentlessly mocked many of the Orange’s errors throughout the second half as the blowout became cemented.

Syracuse finished the ugly half with seven turnovers and failed to make a single 3 until the 11:24 mark off an open shot from Cuffe Jr. But Cuffe Jr. wasn’t prone to errors when he stepped out of bounds early in the second half to give SU a turnover. With under five minutes remaining, Copeland twice failed to complete an inbound pass under the UVA rim. Autry stood with a posture of disappointment.

There were also ugly fouls, including one on Benny Williams, who swatted his hand into Blake Buchanan’s face. Autry threw his hands up in disbelief at the call.

Simple plays seemed like a gargantuan task at times. Late in the blowout, Maliq Brown collected a rebound and passed it to Starling. The ball bobbled in Starling’s hands before he eventually missed a driving layup.

Published on December 2, 2023 at 2:29 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com