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What looked to be a minor bump in the road transformed into a mountain for Syracuse to climb. The Orange trailed 7-0 at the under-16-minute media timeout. It was a rocky start but a manageable deficit. That was until the lead ballooned to 17 before Syracuse even scored its first points. Kyle Cuffe Jr. got SU on the board seven-and-a-half minutes in.

But it only got worse for the Orange. Not even 10 minutes into the first half, they trailed 25-2 — the second-worst deficit they’ve had in a first half this season. They looked like a team playing 2,824 miles away from home. It was a complete and utter disaster.

“I thought the game was kind of decided in the first 13 minutes,” Syracuse head coach Adrian Autry said postgame. “We dug ourselves a hole. Just can’t do that against a team like Stanford.”

Syracuse’s (9-12, 3-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) lethargic start was too much to overcome as it fell 70-61 to Stanford (15-6, 7-3 ACC). Maxime Raynaud — the ACC’s leading scorer and rebounder — finished with a game-high 21 points, while SU’s leading scorer J.J. Starling mustered just seven. Even though SU shot 47% from the field, compared to Stanford’s 44%, the Orange turned the ball over 14 times, five more than the Cardinal.

On Monday, Syracuse arrived in California ahead of its matchups with Stanford and Cal on Saturday. During Autry’s weekly media availability, he said the team would practice at 8 p.m. Pacific time, the equivalent of the 11 p.m. Eastern start time that would happen Wednesday.

Whatever Autry did to prepare his team, it didn’t work. Syracuse looked like it was stuck on East Coast time.

There were warning signs in the opening four minutes. Syracuse’s first six possessions ended like this: Missed layup, missed fadeaway jumper, turnover, off-the-mark 3-pointer, missed shot and another turnover. It was a clinic on how not to start a game.

The poor start was on par with how Syracuse has performed away from the JMA Wireless Dome this season. Entering Wednesday, SU had played in eight neutral site and road games. Its point differential was -89. The Orange’s only road win came against lowly Boston College on Jan. 11.

Wednesday was no different for Syracuse, as Stanford started the game with confidence. The Cardinal opened the contest 9-of-15 from the floor with Benny Gealer, Ryan Agarwal and Raynaud shooting 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

Autry saw on film how Stanford liked to get out to quick starts, especially at home, where it boasted an 11-1 record this season. So the second-year head coach was frustrated when his team did exactly what he was hoping it wouldn’t do.

“When you get down like that, you just gotta say, ‘Hey, (let’s get) one stop at a time,’” Autry said.

Once Syracuse settled in, it started to show some life. SU’s starters went 13 minutes without scoring to open the game until Lucas Taylor knocked down a 3-pointer. Taylor’s triple was part of a 20-6 run in nine minutes, during which Syracuse’s offense looked more fluid. Starling got dribble penetration, and the Orange started hitting shots from the perimeter.

Starling — who finished just 3-of-16 — drilled a transition 3 to make it 29-20 with 4:09 remaining in the first half. Jyáre Davis scored soon after, and Stanford’s once 23-point lead was trimmed to seven. Raynaud concluded the first half with a tip-in to complete a first-half double-double. Yet, the way Syracuse started the game, trailing by nine was more than manageable.

The Orange had a chance to continue their momentum in the second half but never truly got over the hump. Every time they got within striking distance, Stanford would answer. Petar Majstorovic’s layup made it 41-33 less than four minutes into the second half. But three minutes later, Stanford’s lead was back to 14 after a Raynaud triple.

“(The message was) let’s not get away from what got us back there,” Autry said. “In the second half we had a couple of costly turnovers, and we got three stops and we couldn’t get the rebound. So again, those things are the ones that hurt.”

Raynaud, Oziyah Sellers and Jaylen Blakes led a three-headed attack that was too much for Syracuse. The trio combined to score 45 points, accounting for 64% of Stanford’s scoring. With Starling struggling, the Orange looked elsewhere for offense. Jaquan Carlos came off the bench and tied a season-high 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting.

The Hofstra transfer connected his second 3-pointer — the only time he’s hit multiple 3s in a game all season — bringing Stanford’s lead down to eight with 9:23 left. It wasn’t until six minutes later that Syracuse would make it a two-possession game for the first time since the opening minutes.

Starling knifed through the defense, scoring on a drive, bringing Syracuse within six. That’d be the closest the Orange would get the rest of the way. An inability to get stops and inconsistent offense ended what could’ve been an all-time comeback.

“We’re here to win games, and we talked about this,” Autry said. “This is a business trip. Obviously, we got a couple days in order to spend that time recovering and preparing for Cal, getting better and trying to better this next game, but it doesn’t change.”

Published on January 30, 2025 at 1:13 am

Contact Zak: zakwolf784254@gmail.com | @ZakWolf22