Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

RALEIGH, N.C. — To open the second half in PNC Arena, Syracuse couldn’t miss. In fact, it didn’t miss for the first 10 minutes.

The Orange went an astounding 11-of-11, including four 3-pointers. The offense, at least to start off, was fueled by interior scoring. Jesse Edwards and Jimmy Boeheim scored 19 and 16 points respectively, uncovering along the baseline for dunks and layups or driving into the paint themselves. That opened up looks outside the perimeter down the stretch.

Syracuse built a lead that was as many as 11 points midway through the half. Yet it wasn’t comfortable at all as the SU defense — a unit that allowed NC State to score a season-high 45 first-half points — watched that evaporate. Within minutes, the lead was just one.

“It was an offensive game. Our offense was really good. It can’t be better than that,” head coach Jim Boeheim said after the game. “(But) when you can shoot almost 60% from the field and 57% from the 3, and you win by a couple buckets, it’s not good. It’s not good.”

Coming off perhaps SU’s best performance of the season, one where the Orange scored 55 points in the second half to bolster a confident win over Wake Forest, Syracuse continued that momentum on the road. The Orange (11-11, 5-6 Atlantic Coast) pulled out a crucial road victory, beating NC State (10-13, 3-9 ACC) 89-82. All five starters scored 16 points or more in a balanced win, offsetting an uneven defensive showing.

The win pulled SU back to .500 on the season for the third time since it had a losing record in early January. It stretches the Orange’s win streak to two games and gives them a chance to extend it to the longest of the season against an uneven Louisville team on Saturday at home.

Syracuse nearly blew its late lead on multiple occasions. Buddy Boeheim couldn’t run down a deep inbound pass and turned it over. Joe Girard III drove but was blocked when he tried to finish. Edwards had to foul a shooter. But in the clutch, SU made its free throws and leaned on Cole Swider, who knocked down two 3-pointers and a jumper — plus the and-1 — in the final seven minutes.

“Earlier in the year, we would’ve lost this game by six or eight points because Cole wasn’t getting into the spots that he needed to get into,” Boeheim said. “But when he shoots it like that, we’re a different team.”

Buddy made a layup and a deep, contested 3-pointer late in the game, too. He was relatively quiet, by his standards, but still posted 17 points.

Syracuse finished 11-of-19 from beyond the arc, but it was the Orange’s movement and passing inside the arc that opened up those looks from deep. Initially, SU kept up with NC State by leaning on interior scoring. The Wolfpack were without Manny Bates and Ebenezer Dowuona, allowing SU to capitalize on NC State’s small lineup by going to Edwards and Jimmy inside.

Edwards got open off pick-and-rolls, using his speed and size to uncover and convert wide-open dunks and close-range finishes. He finished 8-of-9, but he lamented about the one miss after the game, saying “I should’ve made that.”

Syracuse struggled defensively against NC State but used its offense to pick up the win. Courtesy of Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

“We were expecting to get him the ball, and his job is just to finish,” Swider said of Edwards’ role inside. “We trust him when he gets the ball.”

Still, the Wolfpack controlled the lead in the first half by starting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, and they stretched their clip to 10-of-20 from 3-point range by halftime. They were 50% from the field in the first half, too.

The Orange were still in it, though. In addition to their success in the paint, they got to the foul line, knocked down timely 3-pointers via Buddy and Swider and trailed by just three points at the break. It seemed like the same problem that’s occurred so many other times was brewing: foul trouble for their centers. Edwards picked up two fouls early on, and backup Frank Anselem had three, forcing Jimmy to play center for the end of the first frame.

By half, the Orange could’ve been in the lead despite the shower of 3-pointers that NC State unleashed. SU was extremely unlucky to close out the half when multiple shots bounced along the rim but wouldn’t drop. That luck changed in the second half, though, when SU started a perfect 11-of-11 from the field.

“That’s huge, anytime you can do that,” Swider said of the hot shooting. “It’s going to be tough to beat us if we can do that. But obviously we got to play better defense to win these games more handedly.”

NC State opened the second half exactly where it left off from 3-point range. Jericole Hellems drove along the baseline and kicked the ball out to Casey Morsell, who knocked down a wide-open 3-pointer in the corner.

SU answered right back with a 12-0 run, going to work inside once again. Edwards got a dunk and then drove baseline through contact and got the floater to drop. Girard found Jimmy inside for a layup and the foul, forcing NC State to call a timeout.

Syracuse continued that rhythm when Jimmy nailed a 3 and then got a layup off a drive. Then Swider hit a 3 on a ball-screen from Edwards to stretch the lead to 10.

During that time, the Orange leaned on their 1-1-3 defense, which had a bit more success, holding the Wolfpack to 6-of-19 from 3-point range in the second half. And when it counted most, in the final 10 minutes of the second half, Swider heated up and helped SU’s offense outpace NC State’s for the victory.

“It’s tough when you got to score 89 points to win, but, you know, we’ll take it,” Boeheim said.

Published on February 2, 2022 at 11:02 pm

Contact Roshan: rferna04@syr.edu | @Roshan_f16