Orange sharp shooting on target against Florida Southern

The Syracuse Orange closed out their second and final exhibition against the Florida Southern Moccasins with a 96-54 home victory.

Behind their stifling zone defense and lights-out shooting performance from 3-point range, the Mocs stood no chance after falling behind 53-22 at the half.

Overall, it was a tremendous team performance. Six players scored in double-figures. These included fan favorite Trevor Cooney who scored 15 points in 24 minutes. Sophomore Kaleb Joseph’s (13 pts, 4-5 FGA) play has demonstrated his much-improved game which may lead to him being asked to contribute more this season off the bench.

Photo: Aaron Nah

As seen in the first exhibition, the highly regarded freshmen on this year’s team are no joke. Malachi Richardson put up 18 points – 12 of those points coming from beyond the arc—along with six rebounds and three steals. Forward Tyler Lydon had 12 points and Franklin Howard added 7 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. They all played tough and it’ll be interesting to see how they will adjust to the faster regular season game pace. Nonetheless, there’s much to look forward to from these three.

The rest of the starting lineup looked solid as well. Starting point guard Michael Gbinije had another great all-around game logging 14 points, five assists and five steals in the 26 minutes he played. Forward Tyler Roberson, who racked up 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals, showed why he will play such an integral part in the Orange rotation moving ahead. Lastly, center DaJuan Coleman drew much attention once again. He put together another strong performance, scoring seven points and gathering seven boards, proving to much of the crowd he’s no longer rusty. You could just sense from the Syracuse Orange crowd over these past two exhibitions that there’s plenty of optimism and excitement heading into the first regular season game.

There were “a lot of good of things on both ends of the court. We moved the ball well,” Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim said in the post-game interview. “It was a real good effort.”

Certainly, parts of the Orange game plan such as rebounding and staying active need to be fine-tuned going into the regular season; however, Boeheim reiterated the goal was to learn something from these exhibition games and that was surely accomplished.

The regular season tips off in the Carrier Dome on Friday, Nov. 13 at 7:00 p.m. against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.