Syracuse beat the odds just to play its second No. 1 seed in as many games, but North Carolina's 11-point halftime lead was insurmountable.
Except for a few minutes in the second half Saturday night, Syracuse was unable to stop the high-powered North Carolina offense that ended the Orange's surprise championship run one game short as they fell 83-66.
Despite coming up one game shy, head coach Jim Boeheim said he was just as proud of this team as the 2003 Championship team.
“I’m more satisfied than I’ve ever been in any year that I’ve coached, with the possible exception the year we won it all,” he said.
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim: "I think we came out at halftime. We wanted to try to keep it within 12 or so, and with about 10 minutes try to go with full-court pressure. The full-court press helped."
Syracuse overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat the No. 1 seeded Virginia Cavaliers, 68-62. The victory puts the Orange into its second Final Four in four years, and they also become the first 10-seed in NCAA Tournament history to make it this far.
Virginia was 68-0 heading into Sunday night's second half, as they had never lost under head coach Tony Bennett's tenure when leading by 10 or more at halftime. Syracuse used a well-managed 25-4 run which featured a full-court press to stymie the Cavaliers. It was the first time they've beaten Virginia since joining the ACC.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament was even through one half, and they turned it around without great performances from Graduate Forward Michael Gbinije or Redshirt Senior Guard Trevor Cooney. Here's what you can take away from the game:
1. Halftime Blitz
The Orange were shooting even with the Dayton Flyers heading into halftime, but production grew mightily in the second half. Syracuse outscored Dayton 25-5 through the first 13 minutes, turning a two-point lead into 22.
Michael Gbinije notched a career-high 34 points to lead the Orange to 75-66 victory.
After an extremely disappointing performance last week against Pittsburgh in which he recorded just 10 points, graduate student Michael Gbinije scored a career-high 34 points to propel the Orange (19-10, 9-7 ACC) to a 75-66 win over the visiting North Carolina...
Freshman forward Tyler Lydon paced Syracuse with a career-high 21 points.
Freshman forward Tyler Lydon had one of his best games of the season for Syracuse (18-10, 8-7 ACC) against the Pittsburgh Panthers (19-7, 8-6) on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, nobody else on the Orange stepped up as they dropped their second consecutive game by the count of 66-52.
All-around team effort gave the Orange the edge in 60-57 victory.
The Carrier Dome atmosphere was electric Saturday afternoon, and the Syracuse Orange came off short rest, but they were fueled by the loud and at times unsettled crowd of 25,000-plus faithful.
Syracuse's explosive 23-1 run starting two minutes into the first half allowed them to coast to a dominant victory.
The No. 25 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (14-6) scored the first five points of the game while keeping the Syracuse Orange (14-8) off the board for the first two minutes and twenty-four seconds. Soon after, however, Syracuse became almost unstoppable, going on a 23-1 run that didn’t see the Fighting Irish score a field goal for four minutes and 51 seconds. Syracuse maintained at least a double-digit lead from then on en route to a dominating 81-66 victory.
Syracuse gets doubled up in rebounding, falls short to Badgers in OT.
A Thanksgiving championship hangover may have led to the lackluster performance on the glass as the Orange dropped their first game of the season, 66-58, to the Wisconsin Badgers in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge.
The Bonnies held the lead for most of the game, but strong second-half play from Syracuse overcame the deficit.
The announced Carrier Dome attendance had quite a few St. Bonaventure (1-1) fans in the stands out of the 21,379 people that came to see the matchup. They were loud, visible, and pestering Orange fans throughout the game. However, Syracuse (2-0) had the last cheer as the Orange overcame a 32-21 deficit to topple St. Bonaventure 79-66.
SU head coach Jim Boeheim and his players discussed the upcoming 2016-17 campaign with the media on Friday.
The Syracuse University men’s basketball team hosted its annual Media Day on Friday, with SU head coach Jim Boeheim and his players discussing the upcoming season. SU will face Indiana (PA) in an exhibition game at the Carrier Dome on Nov. 1 to open the 2016-17 campaign. Here are some of the things we learned Friday.
Tyler Lydon will play three different positions for SU