It was a tale of two halves.
After coming off an ugly loss to St. John’s last week, Coach Hopkins stressed two points to his team in their return to the Carrier Dome: play positive and don’t fall behind early.
Although the first 20 minutes were filled with poor shooting, careless turnovers, and sloppy interior defense on both sides, Syracuse managed to lead by 4 at the half mainly due to aggressive play and strong rebounding. The second half was a completely different story. Behind the suffocating defense of the SU 2-3 zone, Cornell had no answer for Syracuse’s huge runs.
Multiple players shined in Saturday’s game. Tyler Roberson played exceptionally well, hauling in a double double (15 points, 12 rebounds) in 33 minutes. Michael Gbinije finished the game only three rebounds and two assists shy of a triple double, playing all but one minute. Last but not least, Malachi Richardson added 15 points to go with his 8 rebounds and 2 steals.
This one was really a team effort for the Orange. SU received contributions from Tyler Lydon (9 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks) and Trevor Cooney, who shot 3-7 from downtown. All three of Cooney’s makes came consecutively in the second half, which pumped up the home crowd.
In addition center DaJaun Coleman collected 7 rebounds and 4 quick points at the start of the game. Guard Kaleb Joseph dished out 3 assists and gathered 2 steals in his short 7-minute stint.
Altogether, Syracuse shot significantly better at the free throw stripe than in past games and rebounded the ball extremely well in the second half. Perhaps Syracuse star Pearl Washington’s heartfelt introduction at halftime had something to do with it.
Nevertheless, Coach Hopkins stated, “Our best offense is when we’re playing good defense… because we’re out in transition and with our shooters, it’s tough to defend us”. This was clearly demonstrated when Lydon and Roberson threw down some monstrous dunks, fueling the Orange faithful
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