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With a 54-53 lead in the second half, Syracuse inbounded the ball to Jimmy Boeheim. He dribbled up the court and paused at the top of the arc while Cole Swider cut towards him. Jimmy quickly took a step toward Swider and dumped the ball off before setting a screen on Swider’s man Puff Johnson.

Jimmy’s defender, UNC star Armando Bacot, elected not to switch onto Swider and instead sat back. So, Swider took a few dribbles into the arc and rose up to drain a long 2.

“Bacot was dropping back every single time we ran that handoff, and Jimmy did a good job kind of screening my man when (Caleb) Love was on me,” Swider said. “When Bacot would drop, it would kind of give me an open 17-footer.”

It was a strategy the Orange would employ throughout the game with Jimmy bringing the ball up. Without Symir Torrence, who remains out with a head injury, Jimmy was the secondary ball handler on the team tonight. His handoffs helped Swider score a career-high 36 points — the most any SU player has scored this season. But the rest of Jimmy’s game was marred with missed rebounds and turnovers as Syracuse (15-15, 9-10 Atlantic Coast) fell 88-79 in overtime to North Carolina (22-8, 14-5 ACC).

Four minutes after the first handoff, Syracuse was down 63-60. The Orange ran almost the exact same play with Jimmy going to his left and setting a pick after the pass. This time Jimmy set the pick on Caleb Love, but again Bacot did not switch onto Swider. He drove all the way to the basket this time and scored a contested layup over Brady Manek.

“We did some handoff stuff for Cole, which got him some open looks,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “It kind of helped our offense a little bit get going and getting shots for him.”

For most of the season, Joe Girard III and Torrence have done the majority of the ball handling for SU. But Torrence suffered a cut to the head against Duke, and was ruled out for tonight’s game. With the increased attention, Girard struggled to get much going, shooting 4-for-12 with just one 3-pointer. He was also forced to play the entire 40 minutes and the five minute overtime period with no reserve guard coming in.

“Joe was having trouble — I knew he’d get worn down. They were going to press him the whole game,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “Jimmy was capable of bringing it up.”

But Jimmy’s night wasn’t an overall success. In the first half, he pivoted with the ball on the right-wing, and as his defender closed in on him, Jimmy’s feet moved too much, resulting in a turnover. On the next possession, Jimmy had a chance to score low, but his hook shot went wide-right and airballed.

After the loss to Duke, Boeheim said that the Blue Devils were just too big and strong for Swider or Jimmy to score on. Monday, while Swider proved that he could score against the Tar Heels, Jimmy struggled in his matchup with Bacot.

With 17 points and 18 rebounds, Bacot became the third player in a row to put up a double-double on Syracuse after Mark Williams and Paul Atkinson Jr. completed the feat in the previous two games.

Jimmy, on the other hand, scored just two points in the first half. His play as a ball carrier boosted him to a better stat line in the second half, but ultimately, the Orange fell short again against a bigger and stronger team.

An inbound play halfway through the first half also gave Jimmy trouble. The Orange had just come out of a timeout with Jimmy inbounding the ball. He sent it to Buddy Boeheim, who passed the ball right back to Jimmy while his foot was still out of bounds.

Near the end of the first half, Swider missed a jumper. The Orange managed to grab the offensive rebound and eventually Buddy passed to a wide-open Jimmy on the right wing. But his shot bounced off the rim, and Leaky Black snatched the rebound and hurled the ball down the court to Bacot for an emphatic fast-break dunk.

“(Jimmy) got a good look at the 3, he just didn’t make them tonight,” Boeheim said.

Published on March 1, 2022 at 12:28 am

Contact Gaurav: gshetty@syr.edu