Syracuse men’s basketball opens ACC Unity Week with comeback victory

With a week to prepare following a postponed road trip to Louisville, Syracuse men’s basketball kicked off ACC Unity Week for winter sports with a 20-point second half comeback in a 75-67 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Dome.

Buddy Boeheim saved the game for the Orange and shifted the momentum with second half heroics from behind the arc. He finished with 29 points on 6-of-10 shooting from three, and his timely scoring inspired the ‘Cuse defense to clamp down in the second half.

Jim Boeheim praised the team following the game as the Orange push towards a birth in the ACC tournament.

“This game was one of the best comebacks I’ve had here,” Boeheim said. “Incredible. Great win. I’m really proud of this team…I’m still shocked by what this team did today.”

Prior to the tipoff, both teams stood in silence on opposite ends of the floor to promote racial equity and social justice. Syracuse players sported matching “One Orange” T-shirts in warmups and on the bench throughout the game.

The Orange showed early indications of rust against a Notre Dame team that bounced back from a 3-8 start to come within a game of .500. The Irish rattled off six wins in their eight games before traveling to Syracuse, poised to knock off the home favorites.

Notre Dame got off to a hot start behind a stellar performance from the ACC’s leader in field goal percentage, Juwan Durham. Durham punished the Orange defenders in the paint to the tune of three alley-oop finishes, 10 points and two assists in the first seven minutes of the game. Notre Dame jumped out 17-9 before Coach Boeheim called a timeout to stop their momentum.

The timeout did little to slow the Irish as they started 13-of-19 from the field with assists on 11 of 13 baskets. The Orange defense scrambled to keep up with the spacing, ball movement and hot shooting that the Irish opened with. Before SU could regroup, the Irish took command 32-15 and prompted another Boeheim timeout.

Marek Dolezaj and Buddy Boeheim were the only Orange players on the board until 13 minutes had passed in the game. As lost as SU looked defensively, the offense fared little better. They shot 11-of-27 overall and 2-of-6 from three, and the team only mustered five fast break points to Notre Dame’s 13.

SU got a small spark off the bench before the half as Robert Braswell and Kadary Richmond hit late baskets, but Syracuse trailed 46-32 heading into the locker room. The Irish came back to Earth at the end of the first and some late misses dropped their field goal percentage to 56.3%.