Late surge pushes Syracuse men’s basketball past Northeastern 62-56

Syracuse created their own storm inside the Carrier Dome ahead of the incoming winter weather set to hit upstate New York, beating Northeastern 62-56. The rare matinee matchup was announced after their 101-63 win at Boston College last Saturday, their first conference game and win of the season.

Both teams struggled early in the first half, with Syracuse shooting two for seven on field goals and the Huskies barely surpassing that mark, making just three for seven early in the first half.

Buddy Boeheim – who passed his dad and coach Jim Boeheim on Syracuse’s all-time scoring list against BC – put up the first two points of the game on a quick jumper 38 seconds into the game. But the Huskies were quick to answer, sinking two of their own just over a minute later.

Although Northeastern pulled ahead early, making back-to-back three pointers, the game saw a lot of back-and-forth movement for the entire first half. The Huskies brought strong offense but couldn’t finish and Syracuse struggled to sink any three pointers, the Orange’s strongest offensive tactic so far this season.

The Orange went almost five minutes without a single successful three-point shot. Eventually, Joe Girard III made the team’s first three to bring the team within three at 4:14 of the first half.

Tied at 13 around the halfway point of the first 20, both teams had a lot of work to do and took every point they could. The neck-and-neck contest saw four ties each in the first half but with 6:09 left in the first, the Huskies held a 25-19 lead over the Orange. Syracuse didn’t score for two minutes until Quincy Guerrier sunk a jumper, bringing Cuse within four.

A space in scoring resulted from a missed jumper by Boeheim and a turnover by the Huskies but Girard’s steal ended with a layup that lifted Syracuse to a 31-30 lead. Northeastern was unable to capitalize on their field goal attempt, leaving Marek Dolezaj to grab two more for the Orange, taking a slight lead, 32-31, with 32 seconds left in the half.

Northeastern’s Chris Doherty missed both free-throw attempts in the Huskies last chance in the period to tie or regain the lead. With twenty minutes in the books, Syracuse headed into the locker room up by only one point, 32-31.

At the end of the first half, 18 of Syracuse’s 32 points were from the paint, with the Orange making only two of 11 of their three-point attempts.

It seemed as though the two teams swapped places as only eight of Northeastern’s 31 points were from inside the rectangle, the Huskies sinking seven of 18 three-pointers.