Behind a bounce back performance from senior Brandon Triche [8], the No. 6 Syracuse Orange (21-4, 9-3) came away with a 76-65 victory over Seton Hall (13-13, 2-11) Saturday night.
Triche scored a season high 29 points on 10-18 shooting, including 4-7 from beyond the arc.
“I think it was the ball movement as a team,” Triche said. “It wasn’t just what I was doing it was what the team was doing. I was just trying to make plays, not score the ball but when it came down to the end of it I wanted the ball in my hands.”
That’s exactly what Triche got with the Orange leading by 10 with just over three minutes remaining in the game. Following a Pirates miss, he brought the ball up court and knocked down a 3-pointer that all but sealed the victory.
“He’s got to be aggressive,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “He was aggressive at Connecticut but he just missed everything. When the ball doesn’t go in it can be a difficult game. It’s hard to win if you don’t score.”
From the start it had seemed if Syracuse’s inability to score was carrying over from the Connecticut game as Seton Hall jumped out to an early 21-12 lead nine minutes into the game.
“I thought that the big response was in the beginning,” Boeheim said. “We were down quite a bit, obviously when you get off to that kind of start you’re not in a good position. We had to get some stops and we had to get some scores. That’s what got us back into the game.”
But it didn’t take long for the Orange to get back in the game as they immediately went on a 12-0 run after Boeheim took a timeout with his team trailing by nine. From that point the Orange held onto the lead for good.
The response continued in the second half as Syracuse responded to nearly every point the Pirates scored. “We just kept responding to their comeback,” sophomore Michael Carter-Williams [9] said. “They didn’t give up; they are a solid team and can knock down shots against out zone. We just wanted to respond to them and get the win on the road.”
Besides Triche’s shooting, Carter-Williams added 14 points for the Orange and junior C.J. Fair [10] picked up his eighth double-double of the season with a 19 point, 11 rebound performance.
The win marked the first road victory for Syracuse since Jan. 19 against Louisville, snapping a three-game road losing streak.
“It’s very difficult to win on the road,” Boeheim said. “The difference today was our guards were really good. Mike (Carter-Williams) and Brandon (Triche) really played well and I thought they were the difference.”
Saturday also marked the last regular season matchup for the Orange against Seton Hall, another founding member of the Big East.
“You’re so worried about the game you don’t think about that stuff,” Boeheim said. “You got to concentrate on each game; every game is incredibly tough in this league and every league.”
Syracuse returns home Wednesday night as they host Providence at 7:00 p.m. In the teams previous meeting this season the Orange came away with the 72-66 victory at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.
Stephen Valenti is a guest contributor at The NewsHouse. He is the managing editor at The Setonian [11].
