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Syracuse struggled out of the gates but eventually pulled away Wednesday for a 62-56 win against Northeastern, a team it was favored to beat by 17.5 points.

Alan Griffin, who entered Wednesday afternoon’s contest — one that was scheduled only two days prior — averaging 18.4 points per game, was held scoreless. He and Buddy Boeheim struggled all game, combining for just two points on 16 shots. Forward Quincy Guerrier, meanwhile, bailed them out with 18 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.

Here are three takeaways from the tight win:

Defending champions Syracuse Orange

At halftime, with his team leading 32-31, head coach Jim Boeheim told team reporter Matt Park he thinks the team needed this dud of a performance as a “wake-up call.”

“Everybody thinks we won the national championship,” Boeheim told Park. “We beat a (BC) team that had a bad game. We came here and didn’t play the whole first half. It’s inexcusable.”

Griffin and Buddy were held to two points on 1-for-8 shooting in the first half. Buddy continued to struggle, missing his first six shots of the second half.

Boeheim broke out a full-court press to give his team a jolt in the second half, as SU remained sluggish. SU started the second half 1-for-11 (0-for-5 from 3), allowing a 10-4 Huskies run. Griffin threw away a pocket pass to Guerrier and missed a wide-open 3 after forcing a turnover in the press. This was all after Northeastern’s best player, Tyson Walker, left with an injury.

With 13:23 to go, Boeheim pulled Griffin and Buddy for freshmen Woody Newton and Kadary Richmond. Syracuse’s offense continued to look out of whack, with nothing going down from 3 (Syracuse went 2-for-18 from deep). Buddy eventually returned and closed, but Griffin was benched for good after committing a turnover with 9:41 left.

Buddy airballed a fadeaway off the dribble, but Guerrier collected the miss and put it back up for an and-one. It was still ugly down the stretch, though. Richmond air balled a tough two with 1:20 left, and SU clung to a three-possession lead. Syracuse made just enough free throws to grind out the win in a game it led for only 15:29.

Live and die by the 3

Syracuse’s zone typically forces opponents to shoot more 3-pointers than they’d like, but that was to an extreme Wednesday. Nine of Northeastern’s first 11 shots came from behind the arc, and the Huskies hit three of them. Northeastern consistently swung the ball around the perimeter and got penetration from the wings, forcing SU’s zone to rotate.

In one play, Walker took the ball up for the Huskies, drove in transition and kicked out to a wide open Coleman Stucke for 3. Girard and Newton trapped Stucke in the corner on the next possession, but both Marek Dolezaj and Guerrier unnecessarily went to help, leaving Jahmyl Telfort in the far corner for an easy 3. SU then allowed another guard into the paint, and an extra pass led to the third Northeastern 3 in a row.

At that point, with NU leading 22-19, 13 of NU’s 17 shots were 3s. Another triple in transition for Telfort made it 25-19.

Northeastern didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but its 32.1% looked like the Golden State Warriors compared to Syracuse’s 11.1%. As SU couldn’t hit anything from deep, its once-prolific offense diminished into one-on-one attacks and forced shots.

Syracuse entered the game averaging an ACC-best 20.2 assists per game. The Orange’s ball movement, especially against Boston College, had been fantastic. But SU finished with only eight assists Wednesday.

Playing through the post

After the destruction of Boston College, Boeheim said he drew up plays for Guerrier, but Guerrier didn’t command the ball. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday.

When SU needed a bucket out of a timeout to stop an 8-2 Northeastern run, Boeheim called a Guerrier post-up. The sophomore caught an entry pass on the right block, took one power-dribble over a smaller defender and rose up over his right shoulder for two. SU also went to him in the post on the next possession.

SU’s offense relies heavily on ball-screens, with Guerrier and Dolezaj as the screeners, in addition to running off dribble-handoffs from Dolezaj. Mixing in more post touches for Guerrier, especially when he has mismatches, could serve SU when it struggles to develop an outside shooting rhythm like it did against Northeastern.

Guerrier has the highest offensive rating on the team, but that’s likely because most of his points come off passes inside from his teammates and offensive rebounds. Expanding his game to the post could add another element to an SU offense that looked painfully one-dimensional Wednesday.

Published on December 16, 2020 at 5:31 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman