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BLACKSBURG, Va. — Jim Boeheim says he’s been “tremendously surprised” with Joe Girard III’s ability to get into the lane and find his own shot this season. To Boeheim, that was especially the case in Syracuse’s last three contests, where Girard averaged over 22 points per game. Last time out, the senior was able to do that against Leaky Black, one of the best defenders in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and even in SU’s last meeting against Virginia Tech, when Girard totaled 24 points.

On Saturday night, VT head coach Mike Young knew Girard’s capabilities. That’s why he implemented a “five-person proposition” to stop him. Hunter Cattoor was Girard’s primary defender, but holding the guard to just seven points wasn’t a one man effort. Virginia Tech hedged on pin downs, didn’t allow Girard to curl around screens and held him to 2-for-8 shooting in Syracuse’s 85-70 road loss.

“Joe has to score for them. He has to,” Young said. “To limit him to seven points is one hell of a defensive effort.”

Boeheim said postgame that Virginia Tech didn’t do anything different in contrast to its 10-point loss at SU on January 11. But this time around, the Hokies had the services of 6-foot-3 senior Hunter Cattoor, who was injured during the last meeting.

In previous years, Young had Cattoor guard Buddy Boeheim, a difficult matchup given Buddy’s 6-foot-6 frame and ability to hit fade away shots, the coach said. Like Buddy was the past two seasons, Girard is the Orange’s go-to scoring option this season, the team’s points leader at 17.5 per game. So, Young put Cattoor on him, providing a good matchup for Virginia Tech, with Cattoor having two inches and 10 pounds on Girard.

When Jesse Edwards tried to free Girard up with pindown screens inside, the Hokies’ big men hedged, preventing the ball from getting to Girard. VT didn’t let him curl off screens on the perimeter, but they also didn’t overly-extend to allow Girard open looks in the corners.

“You just can’t guard really good players, and really good scorers, with one person,” Young said.

Young said the Hokies did a good job not letting Girard curl off screens and get inside, where he likes to shot fake, pivot and score or draw fouls — sometimes both. The five-man effort worked, the coach said, with VT’s defense doing a “remarkable job” and Cattoor in Girard’s footsteps all night.

“They did a good job on everybody,” Girard said. “They were really aggressive getting over screens on everyone and their defensive gameplan on not just me, but everybody, was pretty good.”

Virginia Tech got out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half by repeatedly knocking down wide-open 3-pointers, and Syracuse’s offense responded by searching for quick offense. Boeheim used three of his four allotted timeouts in the first half, trying to find something to get the Orange back in it. Justin Taylor said Boeheim’s focus in the timeouts was to get SU into its sets better, and to move more after several possessions featured one person dribbling and four other Orange jerseys standing still.

Syracuse tried to run more plays for Taylor and Girard, the freshman said, but it didn’t matter much because of Virginia Tech’s success from deep. Girard tried to find a rhythm, using a nice crossover-stepback move to create an open 3 that missed. In the second half, he missed a layup after SU’s press generated a steal, and got stuffed on one of his few drive attempts.

Girard said he didn’t move as well off the ball to gain advantages, and he needs to keep moving to find open spaces. Girard still got one-on-one opportunities, but couldn’t create room for looks or get inside like he had in the past three games, Boeheim said. “He just couldn’t get it off. Just couldn’t get his shot,” the coach said.

Boeheim turned to Symir Torrence in place of Girard for a significant in the second half, needing more length and activity with Syracuse trying to press its way back into the game. Girard said he’s been impressed with Torrence’s energy, defense and ability to calm down the Orange this season. Torrence finished with eight points, five rebounds and two steals, but Syracuse never got closer to 12 in the second half.

“If I knew (Girard) was going to be that bad then I probably would have played Symir a little bit more,” Boeheim said.

Torrence, though, isn’t the offensive threat that Girard is. Like Young said, Girard has to score for SU to win games. And on a night when Syracuse trailed for all but two minutes, they needed their leading scorer to put points on the board.

It may have been, as Boeheim said, just one off night. But with the Orange in a stretch of the season where essentially every game is a must-win if they want to return to the NCAA Tournament, Girard can’t afford to have those. Saturday night proved that.

“Joe’s been really good, he just had a bad game,” Boeheim said. “He had a couple earlier in the year, and he bounced back from them.”

Published on January 28, 2023 at 11:35 pm

Contact Connor: csmith49@syr.edu | @csmith17_