The Syracuse Orange Men's Basketball team has started off the "Adrian Autry Era" with a 2-0 record, but guess came in the building for Game 3 of the 2023-24 season?
A team that has a 2-0 streak versus the Orange for the past two seasons, those pesky Colgate Raiders.
Colgate took the lead at the 18:26 mark off of a three by fifth-year forward Ryan Moffatt and held on through the remainder of the first half, with Syracuse having the lead for a mere 18 seconds off of a three by sophomore forward Chris Bell to start off ahead 3-0.
The Orange would go on a drought from the 7:17 mark to 2:40 remaining in the first half.
At the break, Syracuse trailed Colgate 46-30 in the Dome.
The Raiders led by as many as 19 in the first 20 minutes of play.
Syracuse took two more three-point attempts than Colgate, but made half as many as Colgate, with Syracuse finishing the first half 4-for-17, while Colgate went 8-for-15.
The Orange opened the first half continuing to force threes, going 0-for-3 in the first three minutes, bringing their game total to four makes in 20 attempts from beyond the arc.
Down by more than 20, Syracuse made back-to-back buckets, one a layup by junior center Naheem McLeod off of his own offensive rebound and the next on a steal and layup in transition by sophomore point guard Judah Mintz.
Shortly after, Bell would connect from long distance and Mintz would head to the rim for an acrobatic layup on the team's next possession, bringing the score to 54-39 Raiders. The make by Bell was the first three-point field goal for Syracuse in five minutes and 17 seconds, going back to the three by sophomore guard Justin Taylor with 34 seconds left in the first half.
The four aforementioned field goals starting with the McLeod layup were part of a 19-4 run by the Orange to condense their deficit to eight points, down 58-50 with 9:38 to play.
An old-fashioned three-point play by Mintz would bring the Colgate lead down to seven, 64-57, with a little over seven minutes remaining. Including this play, Mintz scored 10-straight points for Syracuse, cutting their deficit down to just four points, 66-62, by five minutes on the game clock.
Orange sophomore transfer guard J.J. Starling's with 2:51 to play led to a three-point attempt by Bell. On the miss, Starling got not one but two offensive rebounds and a make at the rim to condense the game to one possession of separation, with the Orange down 70-67.
With 1:36 on the game clock, Bell nailed a three to tie the game at 70-apiece.
Fouled inside the arc, Starling would get two free throws, making both, to give Syracuse their firsr lead since the 19:45 mark of the first half, ahead 72-70 with 1:07 left to play.
Sophomore forward Maliq Brown would steal the ball from Moffatt and advance ahead for a dunk, followed by a defensive rebound by Brown and a foul by Moffatt that put Brown on the line, where he made both to give the Orange a 76-70 advantage.
With 22 seconds remaining, junior guard Nicolas Louis-Jacques would make the Raiders' first three of the seocnd half, turning this contest back to just one possession of separation. 76-73 Orange.
Mintz went 2-for-2 to roll the Orange ahead by five, 78-73.
A putback by fifth-year forward Keegan Records brought the game back to one possession, 78-75 Syracuse.
Then, Mintz would head back to the line, going 1-for-2, to give the Orange a 79-75 lead with 1.5 seconds remaining.
The Raiders would inbound the ball, dribble, and call it a night as the Orange block the tic-tac-toe attempt by the Raiders, ending the Raiders' winning streak against them.
Colgate seemed to play the "run-down-the-clock" game and they minimized the amount of threes they took, which would work against them in the end, despite being ahead 16 at halftime.
After going 8-for-15 from long range in the first half, the Raiders went a mere 1-for-9 in the second half.
The Orange made one more in the second half than in the first, going from 4-for-17 to 5-for-15.
Syracuse's victory moves the Autry-led squad to 3-0, while Head Coach Matt Langel and Colgate exit the Dome with a 1-1 record.
Despite being out-rebounded 44 to 32, the Orange did over the Raiders, blocking the Raiders' tic-tac-toe attempt of having a trio of victories in a row.
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